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This is an on-going series of loose stories.", "count": "24", "submission_left_submission_id": "1370967", "submission_left_file_name": "1929459_Fritti_meanwhile_in_minnaluna_-_fangle_farmstead_02.txt", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/1929/1929459_Fritti_meanwhile_in_minnaluna_-_fangle_farmstead_02.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/1929/1929459_Fritti_meanwhile_in_minnaluna_-_fangle_farmstead_02.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/1929/1929459_Fritti_meanwhile_in_minnaluna_-_fangle_farmstead_02.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120", "submission_right_submission_id": "1456562", "submission_right_file_name": "2057916_Fritti_exploring_nezinoma_salis_-_cross-over_-_part_2.txt", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/2057/2057916_Fritti_exploring_nezinoma_salis_-_cross-over_-_part_2.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/2057/2057916_Fritti_exploring_nezinoma_salis_-_cross-over_-_part_2.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/2057/2057916_Fritti_exploring_nezinoma_salis_-_cross-over_-_part_2.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "A bit overdue, as I have been quite busy and also quite distracted the past few weeks, but here it is nonetheless; the third installment in the Fangle Farmstead story series so we can see what dear Laura has been up to and how the work on getting her old abandoned farm fixed back up is progressing!\n\nThis story also sees the introduction of another new character, one whom we will be seeing more of in the future, and whom I have showed a picture of before; my lovely and supertall pastel-furred soda jerk [url=https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1376454]Pamela Rose[/url]!\n\nThere's also a Mature rating again, as there are several mentions of nudity, a few descriptions of said nudity, and a little boob-fondling >~_^<\n\n© to me are;\nThe Minnaluna and Nezinoma Salis world\nLaura Forman\nDaisy Belle\nShelly Rogers\nPamela Rose", "description_bbcode_parsed": "A bit overdue, as I have been quite busy and also quite distracted the past few weeks, but here it is nonetheless; the third installment in the Fangle Farmstead story series so we can see what dear Laura has been up to and how the work on getting her old abandoned farm fixed back up is progressing!

This story also sees the introduction of another new character, one whom we will be seeing more of in the future, and whom I have showed a picture of before; my lovely and supertall pastel-furred soda jerk Pamela Rose!

There's also a Mature rating again, as there are several mentions of nudity, a few descriptions of said nudity, and a little boob-fondling >~_^<

© to me are;
The Minnaluna and Nezinoma Salis world
Laura Forman
Daisy Belle
Shelly Rogers
Pamela Rose", "writing": "Tick. Tick tick. Tick ticka ticktick tickaty tick tick. Ticka ticka tickaticktick tickatytick ticka tick. Ticka ticka tickatytick ticktick ticka tick rattle rattle rumble!\n\nIt had been a rather pleasant, soothing sound. But as soon as the rain picked up and started coming down more heavily, its rapid and heavy descent upon the aluminum roof of the trailer turned it into a quite overwhelming noise. At least it ensured Laura woke up in time. As a matter of fact, the quite sudden rumble almost catapulted the agouti feline out of bed, looking around with sleepy eyes and her ears twitching and swiveling madly.\n\nRunning the fingers of one paw through her messy hair and yawning, Laura rubbed her eyes with her other paw, then pulled down the blinds at one of the trailer's windows and looked outside, smirking at the dark grey sky and the torrent of rain coming down. Well, wasn't that just wonderful. It seemed like not much would come of clearing any paths or fields, with the weather being like that. Still, better to get up and dressed; Laura did remember her neighbor and new friend, Daisy, had promised to come over and help her, as well as show her around town and helping her acquire a pickup truck in a nearby town. And... ah yes, sure enough, there they were; the Woodhouse brothers, the two beaver contractors doing the tear-down work on what was left of the farmhouse.\n\nMindful of the small amount of water, Laura took a quick morning rinse in the trailer's small shower booth before drying off as best as she could and putting on a pair of tan slacks and a long-sleeved blouse. Rummaging through the narrow closet she had unpacked her suitcase into, she also found a raincoat which she put on. She made sure she had all her things with her before stepping outside and quickly closing the door of the trailer behind her, hurrying over to the porch of the old farmhouse to meet the Woodhouse brothers.\n \"Good morning. Some weather, isn't it?\"\n \"Mornin',\" both beavers greeted her in return, Will handing her a paper bag, and Ed nodding while glancing at the sky.\n \"Yeah. Will be like that all day. Prob'ly all weekend too. May patch a few holes in the roof while we're at it, no need to make the inside of the place more damp than it already is.\"\n \"Sounds good,\" Laura nodded, munching on one of the blueberry muffins that were in the paper bag. \"I'm not gonna be here for a good part of the day, though. Daisy is coming over to take me to that Ag Co-op you mentioned yesterday to get all my tools refurbished, and after that she's taking me somewhere to get a pickup truck.\"\n \"Aight,\" Will nodded. \"Got time to see the attic? Fulla stuff. Want us to throw it all out?\"\n \"Oh. Hmmm, I don't know,\" Laura mused, scratching her left ear in thought. \"If it's been there since the seventies, is any of it even still in decent shape?\"\n \"Yeah. Original attic, no add-ons, not much weather got in there,\" Ed said, stuffing his corn cob pipe.\n \"Hmm, okay, that sounds positive,\" Laura nodded slowly. \"I'm kinda curious what might be up there. Hopefully some stuff I can use, the place is gonna be needing a lot of furniture and such when it's done. Is it safe to get up to the attic?\"\n \"Mpf, mpf, yeah,\" Ed said while puffing his pipe alight. \"We put, mpf, one of our ladders up there.\"\n \"Ah, okay, that's reassuring. Okay, show me, Daisy won't be here until around nine, so I have plenty of time.\"\n\nShe followed the two beavers into the dilapidated farmhouse, noticing how some of the flimsy and decaying walls had already been removed from the ground floor to make moving around a lot easier. The main staircase was still in place, and while it creaked and bowed, it was still safe to use for getting up to the second floor. From there, a corridor that had been quite narrow but now was much wider due to the walls on either side having been torn down ran from the front all the way to the back of the house. At the end of the corridor was a heap of rotting wood that had once been a folding staircase, replaced by a sturdy aluminum ladder leading up into a large rectangular hole in the ceiling.\n\nLaura carefully followed the two beavers up the ladder as well, squinting in the dim light filling the attic from two small windows on either side. The attic was only just high enough to stand upright, with a path from the opening in the floor/ceiling towards a massive stone column all the way on the other side, which Laura guessed was the chimney of the fireplace. On either side, pretty much all of the floor space was occupied by old, even ancient furniture, wood crates, and sagging cardboard boxes stacked up to the beams of the roof.\n \"Holy mother of cats,\" Laura murmured to herself as she gazed at everything once her eyes had adjusted to the dim light.\n \"You want us to do anything with all this?\" Will informed.\n \"Yeesh, I dunno,\" Laura shrugged. \"I had not expected anything like this. It all looks better than I would have expected, too, I see a lot of things I can most likely use very well once the place is all done. Uhm...\" She scratched her left ear again, then perked it as an idea struck her. \"I'll have to sort through all those boxes, whatever I can't use I'll sell, whatever's not salvageable I'll throw out, but it will take time to sort through it all. Could you perhaps bring one of those collapsible trash chutes tomorrow, or next time you come back anyway, and put it from the roof to that dumpster? Daisy's niece wanted to come over during the weekend to help me with the place as well, and if the weather's gonna stay like this, it'll be a good opportunity to go through all this stuff, and we can dump anything that needs to be thrown out through the chute.\"\n \"Sure, consider it done,\" Will nodded. \"We be here tomorrow, not Sunday though.\"\n \"Great. And is there a way to get some decent lighting up here?\"\n \"We'll bring an extra generator, run up a wire,\" Ed promised.\n \"Also great, thanks a lot,\" Laura smiled.\n\nWhile the two beavers went back down to start their work, Laura remained in the attic for a while longer, looking around her, poking around, opening drawers, peeking into boxes, and eventually grabbing an old fruit crate made of flimsy wood. There was a variety of very old handyman tools in it. She brought that box down with her and took it out to her car so she could put all the old rusty gardening tools in it she had found in the old shed the previous day. As she was at that, she looked across her shoulder from her deeply leaned-over position at the sound of a honking horn behind her.\n\nA cream-yellow 1956 International Harvester S110 pickup truck with a white grille had pulled up behind the Somali cat, its small windshield wipers furiously whipping sprays of rain off both outside edges of the windshield. The driver door window was wound down, giving passage to the left arm and head of the cinnamon-point Siamese cat Daisy, this time wearing an old cowboy hat instead of her flat straw boater, waving cheerfully at Laura.\n \"Mornin', 'oney! Nice view!\" she giggled with a wink.\nLaura chuckled softly to herself and shook her head, getting up from her leaned-over position.\n \"Good morning, Daisy. You're here quite early.\"\n \"Yeah, dropped Shel off at school bit earlier, what with th' weather an' all. Ya ready to go, 'oney?\"\n \"Just a sec.\" Laura quickly put the last tools in the crate, then closed the trunk of her car and carried the crate over to Daisy's pickup. \"Okay, ready now. Where do I put this?\"\n \"Jus' toss it in the back, 'oney,\" Daisy pointed. \"There's a few bungee cords ya can secure it with.\"\n \"Right.\"\n\nLaura did just that, making sure she got the crate secured as tightly as she could. She also managed to put the old rusty wheelbarrow with the flat tire in there and secure it. Getting into the pickup on the passenger's side then, she shook her ears and pulled her hair out of her face and into a ponytail to squeeze the water from it, sending Daisy a sideways smile.\n \"Thanks again for the help, Daisy. I don't suppose there'd be much we could do with the paths and such today though, right?\"\n \"Ya kiddin', 'oney?\" Daisy chortled, swinging her old pickup around. \"Weather's perfect for gettin' them tree stumps out. With the ground all soaked an' all, they let go easier, ya know.\"\n \"If you say so,\" Laura chuckled, sitting back up and shrugging when she didn't find a seatbelt to fasten. \"Do you reckon it will stay like this all through the weekend? Ed seemed to think so.\"\n \"Right he is,\" Daisy nodded while she drove down the half-cleared path. \"Forecast weren't too good I'm afraid. Shame for Shel, she was really lookin' forward to helpin' us.\"\n \"Well, do I have the perfect work in that case,\" Laura chuckled. \"Ed and Will showed me the attic of the house before you came; it's full of junk. Lots of good junk, mind you, lots of stuff I can and will use once the place is all done up, but there's also tons of boxes and such that need sorting through, to see what I can use, what I can keep, what I can sell, and what needs to be thrown out.\"\n \"Oho!\" Daisy laughed. \"That's perfect alright, 'oney! I can assure ya she'll love that!\" She winked cheerfully. \"Though I bet she won' be much 'elp in sortin' out the stuff, she'll more be playin' with everythin' I'm sure.\"\n \"Oh well, that will be fun too,\" Laura chuckled. She looked around her when Daisy drove back into the small town, rubbing her whiskers with a finger. \"Man, I just can't get over all those fifties cars and all. It's almost surreal driving through a town like this, I feel like I'm in a movie set.\"\n \"Better get used to it, 'oney,\" Daisy chortled. \"The farm may keep ya busy, both gettin' it up to scratch again an' once ya start growin' stuff there, but any time ya gotta be in town, this is gonna be what ya be seein'.\"\n \"I suppose,\" Laura said with another light chuckle. \"And well, it certainly will be a great experience. I've often found, when I watch a movie set in the fifties, that I'm wishing I could visit some of the places, some of the establishments you see in those movies.\"\n \"Such as?\"\nLaura shrugged merrily.\n \"The usual. Small diner with waitresses on rollerskates, for instance. Or one of those ice cream parlors with the big old soda fountains.\" She laughed shortly. \"Or even just pulling into a gas station and have a bunch of guys come out to pump the gas, clean the windshield, air the tires and check the oil all at once.\"\nDaisy laughed softly and winked.\n \"Haha, well, we 'ave sev'ral diners, one's an original boxcar diner even, though I ain't sure if the waitresses go on rollerskates there. An' when we get back from Fandago, I'll take ya over to Pam's, she runs our ice cream parlor, an' she's actually keepin' us on the map. Ha, funny when ya think 'bout it, we're all forgotten in time, but we're still famous for our soda jerk.\"\n \"Is she so special, then?\"\n \"Jus' wait till ya see 'er, 'oney,\" Daisy winked. She pulled onto a huge lot. \"Right, 'ere we are, Ag Co-op.\"\n\nOnce again, Laura looked around her. The lot was huge, alright; on one side was an enormous mound of something covered with a huge tarp and lots of old tires, at the back were rows of heavy vehicles like bulldozers, backhoes, combine harvesters and such, as well as large flatbed rigs to transport them with, on the other side were several enormous warehouses. Daisy had parked in front of a row of lower, smaller buildings, amidst a number of other 1950's cars, the majority of them being pickup trucks. She led Laura through the door of one of the buildings after they had gotten out of the truck, walking over to a large counter manned by a quite large timberwolf dressed in jean overalls and a bright orange hunter's cap.\n \"Mornin', Daisy!\" he greeted the Siamese brightly. \"Mornin', uh...\"\n \"Mornin', Pete,\" Daisy smiled, putting a paw on Laura's shoulder. \"This 'ere be Laura Forman. She be the new owner o' Fangle Farmstead.\"\n \"Oh! Well, good morning to you too, miss Forman! Very pleased to meet you!\" the timberwolf said even more brightly, shaking Laura's paw with enthusiasm. \"I'm Pete Furlow, I'm the Ag agent here! It was such big news hearing someone was moving in to take over Fangle Farmstead, I can tell ya!\"\n \"So I heard,\" Laura said with a light chuckle. \"Very nice to meet you too, Pete. You can call me just Laura.\" She gestured around with her free paw. \"So, I also heard this place is the place to go for farmers when they need help?\"\n \"Absolutely! From seeds to trees, from rakes to combine harvesters, from well digging to complete excavations, anything a farmer could possibly need help with, we provide.\"\n \"Well, that is awesome, because I'm definitely going to need a damn lot of help,\" Laura guffawed. \"There's close to a half-century of mountain forest that needs to be cleared off the land before I can even start thinking of using the farm as an actual farm, and once that is all done, I will probably need drainage, sprinkler systems, machinery, the works.\" She laughed shortly. \"Although for now, some help with the old tools I found will already do just fine. I take it there is some kind of membership involved?\"\n \"Indeed, indeed,\" Pete nodded, pulling up some papers from below the counter. \"You have to be a member. There's a small fee which you can choose to pay monthly, quarterly or yearly, and it ensures you of aid in any form for your farm and your farming business. Look...\" He lay the papers on the counter and pointed out several things, \"...you sign here and here, these are the payment options, and all the rest of this describes the types of help you can apply for, as well as rules and guidelines for the borrowing and operating of equipment. In your case, I would suggest the monthly payment option since we're already deep in the second quarter, you can always change to quarterly or yearly later, we'll send reminders at the times quarterly payments are available. Plus you can opt to either or not receive our newsletter or seasonal catalogs and such.\"\n \"Mm-hm, mm-hm,\" Laura nodded slowly while she looked through the papers. \"I would probably like that, though I don't think the place even has a mailbox anymore, so I would need to figure out where to go to get a new one. I suppose you send the checks for the membership fee through mail too, right?\"\n \"Indeed we do, yes.\"\n \"Right, then I definitely need to get a mailbox. Hey Daisy, do you know, would I need to put it all the way by the gate, or could I put it near the house?\"\n \"If ya ain't plannin' on keepin' any vicious guard dogs 'round, by the 'ouse will work, 'oney.\"\nLaura guffawed shortly again.\n \"Right. I'll do that then. Now for a really dumb question; what even is my address?\"\n \"Haha! Number one, Fangle Lane, 'oney.\"\nThis time, Laura blinked and slowly looked up.\n \"You're kidding me, right?\"\n \"No 'oney, that's the 'onest truth,\" Daisy giggled, holding up a paw. \"Mine is number one, Bluebell Lane. Nothin' on them gravel roads leadin' to our farms other than our farms, so it makes sense, don'tcha think?\"\n \"I suppose it does, in a way,\" Laura said, making a funny grimace. \"Well, at least it'll be easy to remember, that's for sure.\" She filled out the paperwork and pushed it back over the counter. \"Alright then, Pete, here's your papers, let me pay you the fee too, and then you're looking at your newest member who needs immediate help.\"\n \"Of course, of course.\" Pete made out a check which he handed to Laura. \"Just sign this as well, and we're all yours.\"\nLaura did so, handing the check back and shaking paws with the timberwolf.\n \"Thank you, now I feel like I belong here a lot more.\" She grinned. \"Now, for that help...\"\n \"Of course, what can we help you with?\"\n \"Tools. I have a big box full of hand tools that I found in an old shed on the premises. They're all tools belonging to the original farm, so I want to keep them and use them, but they're all rusty and seized. I was told I could get them cleaned and refurbished here.\"\n \"You most certainly can! Bring them in!\"\n \"On it.\"\n\nWith that, Daisy was already out of the building. And before Laura could even look around, the Siamese came back in again, pushing the wheelbarrow with the flat tire which in it held the wood crate full of tools. She took the box out and plunked it on the counter for the wolf to inspect the content. Pete rummaged through the rusty tools a bit, nodding every now and then before looking up at Laura.\n \"We can handle that no problem. By next Wednesday, our workshop will have all of this like new again.\"\n \"Fantastic. What will it cost me?\"\n \"Not a thing. Our workshop guys will be delighted to work on original Fangle Farmstead tools. Call it a welcome gift to our newest member.\"\n \"Even more fantastic, I don't know how to thank you enough.\" Laura shook paws with the timberwolf again. \"Definitely a pleasure meeting you and dealing with you, Pete. I can assure you that you will be seeing me coming back here a whole lot in the near future. For starters to get the vehicles that came with the place operational again.\"\n \"I don't doubt it,\" Pete smiled. \"You're welcome, Laura, and thank you as well. Welcome into our community.\"\n\nWaving at one another, Laura and Daisy walked out of the building again and got back into Daisy's old pickup. As she started the engine, the Siamese cat chortled softly at Laura.\n \"Good thing ya 'ave them papers to read, 'oney. We're facin' a drive of an hour anna half, mebbe two hours on the freeway now.\"\n \"Is it that far to... whatever that town is called you said you'd take me to?\"\n \"Fandago. Yeah, a bit, but it's also, ya really don' wanna push this ol' crate over sixty on the freeway, 'specially in this kinda weather,\" Daisy chuckled, patting the dash of her truck. \"She's a good work truck for short distances, but 'ighway drivin' ain't exactly 'er forte. Noise 'bove sixty b'comes pretty much unbearable, an' in this kinda weather she may go skatin'.\"\n \"Oh, okay, I see,\" Laura nodded. \"In that case, drive back to my place first, we'll take my car, that'll probably be quicker and more comfortable.\"\n \"Okie dokie.\"\n\nThey drove back through town, not speaking much due to the noise of the rain rumbling on the truck's roof. Daisy pointed out several shops and enterprises Laura might want to visit at some point, and she stopped at the court house so Laura could request a new mailbox, after which they also made a stop at the aptly but not very originally named First National Bank so Laura could request a checkbook and such. Driving back to the farm then, the Siamese kitty stopped again at the point where the gravel road led out of town towards Fangle Farmstead and pointed at a very old pole with a very weathered sign on it, giggling softly. Squinting through the rain, Laura eventually let out a soft chuckle when she saw the sign indeed read Fangle Lane.\n\nAt the farm, Daisy parked her truck and caught the keys Laura tossed her, getting behind the wheel of the Somali's old brown Chevrolet instead while Laura got into the passenger's seat. Once again, the Siamese drove them through town, and right out of it to get onto the highway. It followed the line of the mountain's narrow outcrop in a long, smooth shallow curve, all the way to the end where it sharply curved around the point of the outcrop and crossed a narrow stream which Daisy pointed out was the stream coming from the mountain and running past both of their farms.\n\nThere was an exit to Fandago there as well, but Daisy ignored it and drove on. After about twenty minutes Laura saw why, as the Siamese pointed to the right of the highway. They could see a huge flat area filled with massive piles of gravel and rock and huge machines, running all the way up to where a very large chunk was cut out of the mountain's outcrop. It was all too clear that was the quarry Daisy had mentioned, and of course, the next exit showing signs to Fandago and Fandago Quarry took away any last possible doubt.\n\nDaisy took the elevated exit, which led them over the highway to the other side and towards the city of Fandago. Staying at the outskirts, the Siamese eventually pulled onto the lot of a used car dealer tucked between the highway and a small industrial site. Pretty much all of the cars present were from before the turn of the century, and over half of the stock consisted of pickup trucks or flatbed trucks, or even more specialized trucks.\n \"Right, 'ere we are, 'oney. If ya can't find a good farm truck 'ere, I'll eat me hat,\" Daisy chuckled as she parked and got out of the car.\n \"I'll try and make sure you'll have a much tastier lunch than that,\" Laura chuckled.\n\nGiggling softly, they started walking around and between the many cars on the lot. Even despite the rain steadily drenching them, they took their time, although Laura more looked at the aesthetic qualities of the pickup trucks, whereas Daisy pointed out the more useful qualities like certain tires, drivelines, bed sizes and load capacities. It still took almost half an hour before a salesman stepped up to them and asked them if he could be of assistance, and the man was happy enough to get back into the building after Daisy had told him they'd come for his assistance after they had picked out a truck.\n\nAnother twenty minutes later, Laura motioned over Daisy from by a 1974 GMC C1500 she was looking at. It was quite an attractive truck, red with a wide band of white along the middle, stacked quad headlights in a one-piece grille, chrome bumpers and chrome trim along the sides.\n \"How about this one, Daisy? I quite like this one.\"\n \"Mmm, le's 'ave a look-see.\" Daisy started stepping around the truck, looking at it from all sides, including the underside. \"Not bad. Sierra, possibly Sierra Grande trim level, quite luxurious. C1500 though, I dunno. An' them tires ain't worth much either.\" She stepped back up to Laura after a full circle around the truck. \"If ya like the model, 'oney, I would more suggest this one,\" she smiled, rapping her knuckles against the door of the truck standing right next to the red and white one.\nLaura tilted her head and ran a paw over her muzzle while she looked at the truck Daisy indicated. It looked pretty much the same, except that it was a faded pond green color with white roof and pillars, it was sitting on deeply grooved tires, and it had a more rounded front design with a different grille with round dual headlights side by side in chrome bezels rather than a quite square nose with a single-piece grille with integrated stacked dual headlights.\n \"What's the difference, except for the color and the front looking different?\"\n \"For one, she's sittin' on Mickey Thompson Mud-terrains,\" Daisy smiled, nudging the front left tire with a foot. \"Tha's what ya want, 'oney, ya want yer truck to be able to pull through ev'ry kinda terrain. For 'nother, she's a K-series, see?\" She tapped the fender badge with a finger. \"K2500, that means she's an all wheel drive three-quart-ton truck. That red one's a C1500, meanin' she's a two wheel drive 'alf-ton truck. An' again, ya be wantin' the all wheel drive to make sure yer truck will pull through any kinda terrain. The extra load capacity's a bonus. Sure, 'kay, this one's two years older, but it's a much better truck for use on a farm, 'oney.\"\n \"You convinced me,\" Laura chuckled. \"I trust your experience. Alright, this one it is, then!\"\n \"Right, le's go an' get that fellow back out 'ere,\" Daisy chortled. She stepped out from between the trucks, halted, looked around, and grinned. \"Ohey, extra bonus. The green one 'as a tow hitch.\"\n \"You already convinced me, Daisy,\" Laura said with a soft laugh.\nThey walked to the small building at the back of the lot, informing the salesman they had made their choice. All three of them walked back to the truck Laura had picked with Daisy's advice.\n \"So, 'ow much for this one?\" the Siamese said, casually leaning an arm on the truck's bed.\n \"I'll take three and a half thousand.\"\n \"For this? Yer gettin' one.\"\n \"Thirty-two fifty.\"\n \"Eleven 'undred.\"\n\nThey went back and forth like that for a while. Laura kept silent, leaving the haggling to Daisy who clearly had a lot more experience with it. Sure enough, the Siamese eventually pinned down the price at eighteen hundred and seventy-five dollars, which was way below what Laura had expected to pay for a decent pickup truck. In all honesty, the Somali cat would already have been happy to pay the thirty-five hundred dollars - her Chevy Impala had cost her more than that, and that car was even three years older than the truck.\n\nReturning once again to the small building, the salesman took out the paperwork and prepared it for Laura to sign.\n \"Here, here and here,\" he pointed out. \"This is your down-payment amount, you pay the rest when you pick up the car. Make sure to have insurance arranged starting that date, so we can call to confirm and get plates for the car.\"\n \"When will that be?\"\n \"Next week Fri-...\"\n \"Wednesday. We 'ave to be in town to pick up other stuff then too,\" Daisy interrupted calmly.\n \"Hm. Alright, we can do Wednesday. Will you pay by check?\"\n \"Yes,\" Laura confirmed. \"Traveler's check, if that's alright. I've only been in town for three days now, haven't had time yet to stop by the bank and get a new checkbook and all that.\"\n \"That'll be fine.\"\n\nLaura nodded, signing the papers and writing a check which she exchanged for some of the papers, and a business card. With the promise they'd be seeing each other again the coming Wednesday, the two cats left the salesman and walked back to Laura's car.\n \"Djeez, Daisy!\" Laura giggled once they were inside the car again, squeezing the rain from her hair. \"I can't believe how far down you haggled the price of that thing!\"\n \"Tha's jus' my style, 'oney,\" Daisy chuckled while she started the car. \"Ya can thank me with a root beer float at Pam's when we get back to town.\"\n \"You bet your pretty slender butt I will!\" Laura giggled.\n\nDaisy laughed cheerfully while she drove them back along the outskirts of Fandago and onto the highway. Under an hour later, as Daisy had kept the speed up a decent bit now that she had a better car than her old pickup to drive, they made their way back into the tiny town of Fangle Valley. Once again, the Siamese drove the two of them through pretty much the entirety of the town so she could point out several points of interests and shops and enterprises that she figured Laura would want to know about. Eventually, she parked on one of a couple of parking spaces at the side of a corner building either plastered or painted in a soft pink tint.\n\nThe corner of the building was sort of sliced off to create space for a large pair of double doors, while both walls had large, high windows in it of which the tops were round. Many tables with chairs consisting of chrome tubes and pink and white striped seats and backs, as well as a large row of booths with similar pink and white striped cushions were visible through the large windows. Above the row of windows in both walls were large signs, and smaller, colorful neon signs were in the frontmost windows, all reading \"Pam's Ice Cream Diner\" in cheerful, bulbous letters that looked like balloons.\n \"I take it this is where I'll be treating you to that root beer float, huh?\" Laura chuckled, gazing at the building and its many period, cheery details as she got out of her car.\n \"Ya betcher bippy, 'oney,\" Daisy chuckled, closing and locking the car before taking Laura by a paw and pulling her to the large front doors. \"C'mon in an' meet Pam.\"\nLaura followed Daisy with an amused shake of her head, again looking around her at the pink and white checkered floor, the cheery furnishings, the even cheerier decorations and the humongous bar with its row of pink and white barstools when they stepped into the building. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the woman behind the counter, however.\n \"Holy mother of cats!\"\n\nThe Somali cat couldn't stop herself from blurting out her surprise like that. It was rather understandable, however. The woman behind the counter was a feline with short, cream-white fur and light pink markings that ran from halfway down her lower arms over her paws and fingers, plus a light pink band between that and her elbows, a light pink circular marking over her muzzle, cheeks, chin and throat that ran into a larger light pink circular marking over her chest, light pink feet, a long, somewhat bushy tail that was light pink from just above halfway down and with a wide light pink band between that and the base of it, and she had short, light lavender hair with two longer and slightly darker purple bangs on both sides of her face, in which was a pair of friendly, warm deep pink eyes. She was dressed in a uniform that warranted almost no other description but adorable, consisting of a white shirt with short puff sleeves and pink ruffles, collar and cuffs, and a short white and pink striped skirt over which was a white apron with pink pockets and strings. Even more outstanding than all of that, however, was that the woman was seven feet and four inches tall.\n\nAt Laura's blurted outcry, the feline woman looked around and smiled at the two cats coming in, sending a merry wink in Laura's direction.\n \"Aw thanks, but you may just call me Pam, you know. And good morning, Daisy.\" She leaned on the counter with a smile at Laura. \"So what can I do for you, sweetie? Ya hungry, ya thirsty, or ya just passing through? It's a bit late in the morning, but I can still do you a wonderful breakfast if you want, the house blueberry pancakes are quite widely acclaimed if I may say so myself.\"\n \"I'm sure she'll be samplin' them soon, Pam,\" Daisy chortled, pulling Laura over to the counter. \"An' she may even b'come yer main berry supplier. May I introduce ya, Laura Forman, new owner o' Fangle Farmstead. Laura, this be Pam, our famous soda jerk.\"\n \"Oh now! A pleasure to meet you, Laura!\" Pam smiled, reaching over the counter to shake Laura's free paw. \"Always so nice to see someone moving into our little town, we don't get that very often. And it's even nicer to know someone's found the deed to Lou's farm and will make it operational again. I take it that [i]is[/i] what you're in town for, yes?\"\n \"Ah, yes indeed,\" Laura nodded while she returned the hearty pawshake. \"As a matter of fact, since I've come into town a few days ago, we've been working quite hard on that. Edward and William Woodhouse are very busy gutting the farmhouse to make it into a habitable place again, and Daisy here has been helping me with clearing the paths, and today she brought me to the Ag Co-op for help with my tools and to some place so I could get a pickup truck.\"\n \"Great, great!\" Pam smiled widely. \"It'll be wonderful having that place in business again, Fangle Farmstead was pretty much the first farm to settle here when our town got first established. It was such a shock when dear Lou passed away and it turned out the deed to the farm was missing. Do you have an idea already of what you will be growing once you have the place back in order?\"\n \"Yes, I was thinking fruits, mainly berries, I've always been a big fan of berries,\" Laura nodded, sitting down on a pink barstool. \"It'll probably be a year or two before that actually happens, though. There's [i]so[/i] much work to even just clear the grounds, and then when all of that work is finally done I will have to prep fields, plant berry bushes, wait for those to produce fruits, and, well, actually learn how to be a farmer.\"\n \"I'm sure you'll learn that in a jiffy, sweetie,\" Pam smiled. \"And if nothing else, you have our entire community to call upon for help, everyone will be totally happy to help you out any way they can.\"\n \"I did notice that the people here are very friendly and very quick to offer help, indeed. I especially noticed that from the overwhelming way I was offered help by this crazy Siamese here next to me,\" Laura chuckled.\n \"Oh phooey!\" Daisy chuckled. \"Yer lucky yer cute, 'oney!\"\nThey all laughed cheerfully.\n \"I suppose I have that going for me,\" Laura chortled, turning to Pam again. \"So Daisy said I could treat her to a root beer float here?\"\n \"Best in the land, sweetie,\" Pam nodded. \"You want one too?\"\n \"Yeah, you know what, I think I will,\" Laura nodded with a smile. \"I can't remember ever having had one, actually.\"\n \"That'll be two then, or one big one to share?\"\n \"Do us the big'un, 'oney, we'll share,\" Daisy chuckled.\n \"Comin' up!\"\n\nThe enormously tall white and pink cat ducked under the counter and produced a sundae glass that bore more resemblance to a pitcher. She twirled it between her fingers and plunked it down under one of a number of spouts of a very large, old-fashioned soda fountain, pulling the long lever to fill the pitcher about halfway with fizzing root beer. A reach into a freezer under the counter produced a large tub of vanilla ice cream, while the bump of an elbow against a tray full of cutlery and kitchen implements made an ice cream scoop sail across the white and pink cat's shoulder and into her free paw. She scooped several balls of the ice cream into the large glass before twirling the scoop around her finger and flicking it into a sink on the other side of the counter. Finally, after the pitcher's content stopped fizzing, she yanked the lever a couple of times again, splashing a few more dashes of root beer over the ice cream until the foam started bubbling over the top of the large glass.\n\nWith a flourish, Pam set the large glass on a plate with two spoons and set that on the counter in front of Laura and Daisy. Another bump of an elbow against a shelf with a number of small glass jars had two of the jars sail across her shoulders and land in each of her paws, which she held up cheerily.\n \"Sprinkles?\"\n \"Oh now yer jus' showin' off,\" Daisy chuckled.\n \"Wow, that was amazing, though! You have talent! And such skill!\" Laura said with impressed enthusiasm.\n \"Thank you, sweetie,\" Pam smiled, giving a small wink. \"Now go on, eat up and enjoy!\"\n \"Yeah, no better firs' time tastin' a root beer float than tastin' the bes' one in the land, 'oney!\" Daisy giggled, taking a large spoonful from the glass and sticking the spoon in Laura's mouth.\n\nGiggling cheerfully, the two cats started eating the root beer float, chatting calmly with Pam and every now and then sharing friendly greetings with other people coming in. Most of the time, the greetings also came with introductions for Laura, as aside from the canine secretary from the mayor's office, all the people coming into the diner were ones the Somali cat hadn't met yet.\n\nWhen they were done, Laura paid for the root beer float and also gave a generous tip, which earned her a bearhug from the very tall white and pink cat. As it was still raining steadily, the two cats hurried back to Laura's car and got in quickly.\n \"Before we go back to the farm, Daisy; is there a supermarket around here? I got some basics the other day, but it's not very much as the only store I came across quickly was that small corner store by the town entrance. But I'm sure that even in a town as small as this, there's at least one decent-sized supermarket?\" Laura asked.\n \"Sure, Meg an' Ryan's.\"\n \"Can you get me there first? I really need to do some proper grocery shopping, I can't and shouldn't depend on the Woodhouses bringing me breakfast goods every morning and you feeding me dinner every day.\"\n \"We would, though,\" Daisy chuckled with a wink. \"I know what'cha mean though, so le's go get yer fridge stocked.\"\n\nShe drove the two of them through the main street of the town and around the park in front of the courthouse. On the other side, behind the courthouse, were two buildings that had been made into one building, with each of the buildings' individual doors removed and replaced by a pair of large double doors in the middle, with a large sign reading Meg & Ryan's Super Market spanning almost the entire width of both buildings. Behind those buildings was a fairly large parking lot where Daisy parked the car before leading Laura back around to the front of the buildings and through the large double sliding doors.\n\nOn the inside, it was even more clear there had been two buildings which had simply been added together to form one large building; the dividing wall between the original buildings was still in place, although it had been provided with huge high archways. And Laura could tell it was not so much a supermarket as it was an old general store and an old grocery store that had been combined with one another. Daisy confirmed this, telling Laura that originally it had been Ryan's General Store and Meg's Groceries, but they had decided to combine their stores into one supermarket-like store for convenience, and to be able to offer lower prices.\n\nThere still was a sense of shopping in two separate stores, as all of the grocery-type wares were on one side of the dividing wall whereas the dry goods were on the other side, despite there being central cash registers in the middle. Laura also noticed that there was still a lot of old village influences, with, primarily, a lot of the fresh produce and such being provided by local farmers. All in all, it was a very pleasant shopping experience, and again, Laura got several introductions and hearty welcomes into the town and the community.\n\nWith two bags full of groceries and necessities, they once more hurried back to Laura's car. Still Daisy did not return to the farm, but she first drove Laura to a clothes store to help the Somali cat pick out a couple of pairs of overalls and some denim and flannel shirts - proper farmer's attire. She even bought Laura a flat-top straw boater, almost exactly the same as the hat she usually wore herself, except for the fabric band and bow being a different color.\n\nHaving taken care of everything they could think of that needed to be done while in town, the two cats eventually did drive back to the farm. Daisy drove them to her own farm, however, where she took her small orange tractor out of the barn and affixed a small, backhoe-like arm with a small bucket to the back of it. She also put the small chainsaw and several lengths of heavy chain in the trunk of Laura's car, telling Laura to go back to her own farm ahead of her while she drove the tractor over there. It gave Laura enough time to put away all her groceries and even to change into one of the pairs of overalls by the time Daisy reached her farm.\n\nWhen the Siamese arrived, it was finally time to get to work. Laura was still a bit foggy on exactly how they were going to get the stumps of the trees they had cut down the previous day out of the paths, but once Daisy showed her it turned out to be relatively simple. The Siamese cat used the arm on the back of her tractor to dig down on either side of a stump, then used the bucket to pull the stump upwards after which she affixed some of the chains to it and the bucket and pulled it up further, at which point Laura stood by with the chainsaw to cut through the thicker roots. After dropping the stump at the side of the path, Daisy used the wider bucket on the front of her tractor to smoothen the path a bit and fill in the hole left by the stump.\n\nIt was pretty hard work, and with the rain not letting off throughout the day it was pretty muddy work as well. A couple of hours in, both cats were covered almost up to their chests in gooey, gray-ish red mud, with streaks of it covering their faces and heads as well from where they had mopped the sweat off their brows. It did not diminish the cheerfulness and energy with which they attacked the work one single bit, however. If anything, it made them even cheerier - almost like a pair of kittens playing in the mud.\n\nAll in all, it made the work, as well as the time, go by without either of them noticing it. The dark rainclouds blanketing the sky took away a good deal of awareness on the passing of the time, with the light more or less staying the same throughout. By the time the two felines reached the old well by the farmhouse, it turned out to already be nearing six o'clock.\n \"Well! Time sure flies, don' it?\" Daisy commented as she took her pocket watch from her front pocket and flicked it open to check it. \"I better get back 'ome, Shel mus' be wonderin' what's keepin' me.\"\n \"Is it that time already?\" Laura blinked, checking her own watch. \"Wow, you're right, I hadn't the faintest we've been going for so long already.\"\n \"Well, least we got a good bit o' work done, 'oney,\" Daisy winked. \"Ya got half a path all clear an' smooth now, so no more zig-zaggin' 'round trees an' stumps an' havin' yer teeth rattle outta yer mouth when ya pull up to yer 'ouse.\"\n \"That's definitely true, and you have no idea how much I appreciate it, Daisy,\" Laura chuckled. \"I wouldn't have made a fraction of this amount of progression if I had been left to my own devices.\"\n \"Ya can thank me with a backrub when we're showerin', 'oney,\" Daisy grinned, rolling her shoulders a bit. \"Sittin' half-turned on that tractor all the time to look at what I'm doin' b'hind me sure pulls at yer muscles, I can tell ya.\"\n \"Haha, I'll do my best, dear,\" Laura laughed shortly.\n\nThey gathered up the tools and the chains to put them in the trunk of Laura's car, and Laura even grabbed a trash bag to put on the driver's seat so she wouldn't smear the mud from her clothes all over the seat as she followed Daisy to Bluebell Farm. As they arrived there, they could see the black and white kitten Shelly behind one of the living room windows with her nose smooshed against the glass. The moment they stepped in through the front door, Shelly zoomed out of the living room and up to the two muddy cats with a cheery squeal.\n \"Aunt Daisyyy! Where've you been! It's dinnertime already!\"\nDaisy just in time managed to stop the kitten from hugging either of them.\n \"Whoa whoa, easy kiddo! No huggin' till we's all clean again, 'kay? I been helpin' Laura, 'oney, we been to Fandago for a truck an' to the Ag Co-op an' into town for shoppin' an' everythin', an' we did a whole buncha work at 'er farm.\"\n \"Oh yeah! You said so yesterday!\" Shelly nodded. \"What's for dinner though? I'm hungry!\"\n \"Let us get cleaned up firs', silly!\" Daisy chuckled. \"I'll throw somethin' t'gether when we's done, 'kay? Go an' do yer homework in the meantime, we shouldn't be too long I don' think.\"\n \"Bleh! Okaaaaaay, fiiiiine!\" Shelly complained with a giggle, poking out her tongue.\nLaura giggled softly behind a paw.\n \"If you finish all your homework, I'll have something very fun for you to do at my house tomorrow, dear, and I will treat you and your aunt to a root beer float at Pam's for lunch, too.\"\n \"Eeeeeeee!\" Shelly squealed, hopping up and down. \"Okay Laura! Yay! You're totally the best!\"\n \"I know, you told me so yesterday a couple of times already,\" Laura chuckled.\n \"An' she's also the muddiest, so it's shower time now,\" Daisy chortled, smacking Shelly's rump with a paw. \"Go do yer homework, we'll be down in a bit.\"\n \"Okay, okay!\" Shelly giggled, flicking her tail and running back into the living room.\nChuckling softly, Daisy and Laura went upstairs to the bathroom, peeling off their muddy clothes.\n \"Jus' drop yer duds in the 'amper, 'oney, I'll wash'em tomorrow.\"\n \"Thanks,\" Laura smiled while she put her keys and her purse on the shelf over the sink before peeling off her overalls. \"What should I put on when I drive back to my place though?\"\n \"Nothin'?\" Daisy shrugged with a giggle, turning on the shower and mixing the hot and cold water. \"Ya can easily do that, ya know, ain't no one gonna be on that path 'tween yer place an' mine to be seein' ya. 'Eck, Shel an' me often go for hikes on the mountain in the buff in summer, ain't no one seein' us there either. Well, 'cept mebbe Cynthia,\" she added with a chuckle.\n \"I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting a Cynthia yet,\" Laura chuckled.\n \"Oh ya will soon 'nough,\" Daisy winked while she checked the temperature of the water. \"She's a fishin' cat, ya know, lives in Pine Corner, but she's always over on this side o' the mountain too, takin' care o' the fish populations in the Fangle River an' Fangle Reservoir as well as in that stream comin' from the mountain an' runnin' past our farms an' the few small mountain lakes it feeds.\"\n \"Is that why there is so much fish in that stream?\" Laura asked, stepping under the shower. \"I noticed it seemed to be quite teeming with life when I looked at it the other day.\"\n \"Oh yeah,\" Daisy nodded as she stepped under the shower as well. \"She 'as an aquarium store in Pine Corner, breeds pretty much alla the fish 'erself, but she's also big in environmentalism an' such, an' she takes real good care o' the waterways 'round 'ere.\"\n \"I see,\" Laura chuckled, closing her eyes and leaning back her head to let the water flow over her hair and face, rinsing away the majority of the mud as it flowed down the rest of her body. \"And so she has seen you and Shelly taking nature walks in the nude before then.\"\n \"Yup, plen'y o' times,\" Daisy nodded, untangling her braid and grinning a bit. \"I daresay we's one o' the main reasons she loves comin' over to this side o' the mountain so much. We spent a whole buncha reeeal good times t'gether already.\"\n \"I take it that things haven't stopped at just seeing you naked, then,\" Laura chuckled while she shook the water off her ears.\n \"Nah, we also did a lotta fishin' an' flower pickin' an' swimmin' an'... stuff,\" Daisy giggled.\n \"Right, right, 'and stuff', I see,\" Laura said with a funny smirk.\n \"Yeah, we love the stuff,\" Daisy winked.\n \"I must keep an eye out for this Cynthia, then. Sounds like she could tell me some quite interesting stories,\" Laura grinned.\n \"You betcher bippy, 'oney,\" Daisy winked again. \"Shouldn't be too 'ard to miss 'er, neither; she's 'bout as tall as ya, few inches shorter mebbe, thick silver fur with tons o' spots, an' bein' a nudist too, she usually does 'er field trips in the buff as well.\"\n \"I'll definitely be keeping an eye out, then,\" Laura chuckled. \"Now, about that backrub I owe you...\"\n\nShe turned a bit and also turned Daisy a bit, laying her paws on the Siamese's shoulders and curling her fingers over them. Daisy chuckled and leaned over a bit, dipping her ears against the spray from the shower and curling her tail around Laura's waist while playfully pressing her slender butt against the Somali's stomach. Despite not having very much experience with giving massages, Laura could easily feel the strong muscles under Daisy's fine, short fur and smooth skin, running her fingers back and forth along them in soft rubbing motions.\n \"Golly, Daisy,\" she said after a while of softly rubbing the Siamese's back. \"You don't really look it, but you have some darn strong muscles in you.\"\n \"Workin' on a farm kinda does that to ya, 'oney,\" Daisy chuckled, rolling her shoulders again. \"Once ya 'ave yer place all up an' runnin', ya will find yer muscles gettin' all 'ard an' strong too.\" She turned to face Laura and grinned softly, bringing up her paws and cupping them around the Somali's breasts to give a light, playful squeeze. \"Gee wiz, an' whaddaya know, Shelly was right, ya [i]are[/i] very soft indeed.\"\nLaura blinked for a flash of a moment, looking down at the slender fingers curled around the curvature of her breasts, then giving her head an amused shake and poking out her tongue at Daisy while she placed her own paws right over the Siamese's petite breasts in return.\n \"Gee wiz, whaddaya know, Shelly was right, mine [i]are[/i] bigger than yours.\"\n\nThey both giggled, looking down at the other's paws being on their breasts, then looking up at each other again. The next moment, Daisy leaned up and locked lips with Laura. Again, the Somali cat was momentarily surprised, but a moment later she closed her eyes and leaned down her head a bit and answered the kiss, slightly parting her lips when she felt Daisy's tongue running against hem.\n\nFor several long, blissful moments they just stood there, the warm water of the shower running down along their bodies and rinsing away the last traces of all the mud, paws on each other's breasts, eyes closed and lips locked together while their tongues slowly explored and tasted one another. Eventually breaking free, they opened their eyes again and looked at each other with a soft purr. Daisy slid one of her paws up along Laura's breasts and to her face, brushing a dripping lock of hair from the Somali's face with a smile.\n \"We should prob'ly get back downstairs an' start on dinner, mm?\"\n \"Yeah... yeah, I reckon that would probably be a good idea,\" Laura nodded with a purr.\n\nDaisy nodded and pressed a soft smooch on the side of Laura's muzzle while she turned off the water. Grabbing two towels, they dried off as best as they could and helped each other brush their fur and hair a bit before walking back downstairs. As they stepped into the living room, Shelly hopped up from the couch and ran up to them to hug them both in turns.\n \"You took long! I got all my homework finished already!\"\n \"Good gal,\" Daisy chuckled, ruffling Shelly's short hair with a paw. \"Now go on upstairs an' wash up, I'll make us somethin' for dinner. Ya can leave yer clothes in the 'amper.\"\n \"Yay! Okies! Nakie time, wheee!\" Shelly giggled.\nShe hugged Daisy and Laura again before darting out of the living room and up the stairs. Laura chuckled softly while she followed Daisy to the kitchen.\n \"I've never seen a kit be so enthusiastic about washing up for dinner. Don't kits usually hate bathing?\"\n \"Yeah well, she knows she can leave 'er clothes off afterwards, an' for a gal 'er age that's still an adventure, 'cause they think it's naughty, even though it ain't,\" Daisy chuckled, leaning into the refrigerator to grab a stick of butter and some packets of sliced cheese and luncheon meats, then taking a loaf of bread from a breadbox. \"Wanna 'elp me make some sammiches while I 'eat up some soup, 'oney?\"\n \"Sure,\" Laura nodded with a smile. \"And yeah, that makes sense. I know when I was a kit, it always seemed mighty exciting to me when we went to a swimming pool and I had to take all my clothes off to change into a bathing suit.\"\nDaisy nodded while she grabbed a can of richly filled tomato soup from the pantry.\n \"Ya ever went skinny dippin', though?\"\n \"Well, not when I was a kit, that's for sure,\" Laura laughed softly, finding a wood cutting board and a breadknife so she could start cutting slices off the loaf of bread. \"I did later, sometimes, though. The town I lived in was near the foothills of a mountain as well, and there was a hot spring in the hills that was a quite popular place for skinny dipping.\" She laughed shortly again. \"It was not allowed initially, but people were caught skinny dipping there so often the town eventually put up a sign by the spring saying that after eight o'clock in the evening, it was a clothing-optional place, just to be rid of the hassle.\"\n \"Haha!\" Daisy chuckled while she opened the can of soup and poured it into a pan. \"I s'pose that would be a good solution, yeah.\" She winked as she reached past Laura to grab a ladle from a pot full of kitchen implements. \"Well, I can tell ya, 'oney, that stream that runs past our farms? It springs up quite near the crater o' the ol' volcano an' collects into a small mountain lake, an' from there it runs into a second, even smaller lake from where it runs down the side o' the mountain an' past our farms. The stream ain't that deep or wide, but both them li'l lakes are mighty suitable for swimmin' in, an' since they's so private up there in the mountain forest, they's even more suitable for skinny dippin'. We done it a bunch o' times durin' summer vacation, Shel an' me. Matter o' fact, that's 'ow we firs' met Cynthia.\"\n \"I believe that,\" Laura chuckled, buttering the slices of bread and covering them with slices of cheese, salami, ham and/or turkey breast. \"You gotta show me those lakes sometime, I'd be very interested to see, uhm... where the main water source for my farm originates from, yeah,\" she finished with a laugh and a wink.\n \"O'course ya are,\" Daisy chuckled as she lit the stove and started stirring the soup. \"I'll be sure to show ya sometime soon, it's mighty important for a farmer to know where the water for their farm comes from. Gotta know if it's clean an' all that.\" She pointed at a row of plants in the windowsill. \"Can ya 'and me that parsley plant, 'oney? Left one.\"\n\nLaura nodded and took the indicated plant off the windowsill to hand it to Daisy, looking at the Siamese cutting off several of the stalks and leaves and taking a large knife to chop them up finely, after which she added them to the soup and stirred that again. She also added some yellowish white powder and red powder from a couple of small jars and stirred it through the soup, making sure to keep it from bubbling. While she was at that, Shelly came into the kitchen, now also nude, and happily hugged both Daisy and Laura around the waist from behind.\n \"Yay, soup! I like soup!\"\n \"Good, then go an' set the table, 'oney,\" Daisy chuckled. \"Dinner's almos' done.\"\n \"Okies!\"\n\nThe kitten happily bustled out of the kitchen and into the dining room, where she was heard fussing around with cutlery and chinaware. Daisy meanwhile finished with the soup and took a pair of crocheted pan holders so she could pour the soup into a tureen while Laura put the cheese and meats and butter back into the fridge and put the sandwiches on a large platter.\n\nBringing the food into the dining room and setting it on the table, they sat together and had a calm, relaxed dinner, chatting about various things. Daisy taught Laura a few basics on how to read the weather, and what were some of the best and most economical ways to install things like drainage and sprinklers on her farm. Before too long, the food was gone, and after they had washed and dried the dishes, they moved to the living room to continue their calm sitting together and chatting.\n\nAll the while, Shelly was happily cuddling up against Laura from the other side, with her arms wrapped tightly around the Somali cat and her head nuzzled against Laura's midriff. The agouti feline lightly stroked the kitten's hair and ears with one paw without even really noticing she was doing it while she was talking with Daisy, although the constant chirpy purr coming from Shelly was a perpetual reminder of how happy the young cat was feeling.\n \"Hey, Laura?\" she purred at a lull in the conversation, rolling her head to look at the Somali's face.\n \"Mm? Yes, what is it, dear?\" Laura smiled, looking down and only then noticing how she had been petting the kitten's hair and ears the entire time.\n \"Can we still make pictures, Laura?\" Shelly asked with a hopeful smile.\nLaura chortled softly and lay a fingertip on the kitten's nose.\n \"We'll do that tomorrow, okay? That way we'll have much more time because we'll be spending the whole day together, and you won't have such an early bedtime. Or at least, I suppose so?\" she added with a sideways glance at Daisy.\n \"Nope, yer right alright,\" Daisy chuckled. \"Weekend bedtime is an hour later, 'cept for Sunday 'cause it's back to school on Monday.\"\n \"Makes sense,\" Laura nodded, looking back to Shelly. \"Alright, so yes, we'll do the pictures tomorrow then.\" She chuckles. \"We also won't need such an extensive shower tomorrow since the work I have planned is waaay less muddy than the work your aunt Daisy and I did today. It'll probably be a lot more dusty, though.\"\n \"Ooooo! Ooo! What're we gonna do, Laura?\" Shelly asked enthusiastically, looking up with twinkling eyes.\nLaura looked aside at Daisy again, chuckling softly.\n \"Should I tell her?\"\n \"Sure!\" Daisy laughed, giving Laura a nudge with her shoulder. \"I mean, 'eck, I'm curious as anything too, 'oney!\"\n \"Hee! Well, alright then,\" Laura giggled. She turned back to Shelly and winked. \"Well dear, the thing is this, see. This morning, the misters Woodhouse informed me, and then showed me, that the original attic of the farmhouse is still intact and it's full of stuff. I mean, lots and [i]lots[/i] of stuff! Furniture and such, and tons and tons of crates and boxes full of stuff as well. So I asked them to bring one of those fold-up trash chutes tomorrow, so that we can sit in the attic and sort through all of that stuff to find out what it all is, what I will save to use myself, what I will save to sell lateron, and what I can throw away. That is what we will be doing tomorrow, and most likely Sunday as well.\"\n \"Eeeee!\" Shelly sat up and started bouncing on the couch while clapping her paws. \"That sounds so awesommme, Laura! I love going through old stuff in the attic and seeing what I find! There's always so much fun stuff to find!\"\n \"Good, then I won't have to worry you will be bored out of your mind by doing clean-up work the whole day tomorrow,\" Laura chortled, playfully ruffling Shelly's hair and ears with her paw.\n \"Nope! It'll be so much fun!\" Shelly giggled while batting a paw at Laura's paw.\nDaisy curled her lips into a grin as she rose up from the couch.\n \"In that case, we better get ya into bed, 'oney, so ya will be all rested for tomorrow. An' 'cause it's yer bedtime, too.\"\n \"Hee! I suppooooose!\" Shelly giggled.\n \"Yes, your aunt is right, sweetie,\" Laura chortled. \"It's actually my bedtime as well, because both misters Woodhouse will be at my house again at seven tomorrow morning, and I should be all ready by then.\"\n \"You will come tuck me in first though, yes?\" Shelly giggled, setting a pair of cutely begging eyes upon Laura.\n \"How could I say no to that look?\" the Somali cat giggled.\n\nShe got up from the couch as well, the three of them making their way up the stairs and to Shelly's bedroom to put the kitten into bed and smooch her goodnight. And getting a great big slopper of a smooch in return. They stopped by the bathroom on the way back downstairs to collect all of Laura's personal belongings that she had kept in the pockets of her overalls, then halting by the front door where the two cats shared another soft, tender kiss.\n \"I'll be seeing the two of you tomorrow then, Daisy.\"\n \"Sure ya will. Ninish sound 'kay?\"\n \"Sounds great to me. Just go in and go up to the attic if I'm not down to meet you.\" Laura gave Daisy a close hug. \"Goodnight darling.\"\n \"G'night 'oney, sleep tight an' sweet dreams an' all that.\"\n\nA last close embrace, then Laura stepped outside and walked over to her car, already having completely forgotten she was still stark naked despite the rain still falling steadily. It was such a second nature to her she didn't even notice her being nude most of the times. Driving calmly along the dark dirt road between the two farms, the agouti cat reflected on the day, the work they had done, and the work they would be doing the next day. As she reached her trailer, she parked and quickly got into the trailer, drying the rain off her fur with a towel before settling down in the bed with a smile.\n\nTomorrow was certainly going to be a very nice and fun day.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Tick. Tick tick. Tick ticka ticktick tickaty tick tick. Ticka ticka tickaticktick tickatytick ticka tick. Ticka ticka tickatytick ticktick ticka tick rattle rattle rumble!

It had been a rather pleasant, soothing sound. But as soon as the rain picked up and started coming down more heavily, its rapid and heavy descent upon the aluminum roof of the trailer turned it into a quite overwhelming noise. At least it ensured Laura woke up in time. As a matter of fact, the quite sudden rumble almost catapulted the agouti feline out of bed, looking around with sleepy eyes and her ears twitching and swiveling madly.

Running the fingers of one paw through her messy hair and yawning, Laura rubbed her eyes with her other paw, then pulled down the blinds at one of the trailer's windows and looked outside, smirking at the dark grey sky and the torrent of rain coming down. Well, wasn't that just wonderful. It seemed like not much would come of clearing any paths or fields, with the weather being like that. Still, better to get up and dressed; Laura did remember her neighbor and new friend, Daisy, had promised to come over and help her, as well as show her around town and helping her acquire a pickup truck in a nearby town. And... ah yes, sure enough, there they were; the Woodhouse brothers, the two beaver contractors doing the tear-down work on what was left of the farmhouse.

Mindful of the small amount of water, Laura took a quick morning rinse in the trailer's small shower booth before drying off as best as she could and putting on a pair of tan slacks and a long-sleeved blouse. Rummaging through the narrow closet she had unpacked her suitcase into, she also found a raincoat which she put on. She made sure she had all her things with her before stepping outside and quickly closing the door of the trailer behind her, hurrying over to the porch of the old farmhouse to meet the Woodhouse brothers.
   "Good morning. Some weather, isn't it?"
   "Mornin'," both beavers greeted her in return, Will handing her a paper bag, and Ed nodding while glancing at the sky.
   "Yeah. Will be like that all day. Prob'ly all weekend too. May patch a few holes in the roof while we're at it, no need to make the inside of the place more damp than it already is."
   "Sounds good," Laura nodded, munching on one of the blueberry muffins that were in the paper bag. "I'm not gonna be here for a good part of the day, though. Daisy is coming over to take me to that Ag Co-op you mentioned yesterday to get all my tools refurbished, and after that she's taking me somewhere to get a pickup truck."
   "Aight," Will nodded. "Got time to see the attic? Fulla stuff. Want us to throw it all out?"
   "Oh. Hmmm, I don't know," Laura mused, scratching her left ear in thought. "If it's been there since the seventies, is any of it even still in decent shape?"
   "Yeah. Original attic, no add-ons, not much weather got in there," Ed said, stuffing his corn cob pipe.
   "Hmm, okay, that sounds positive," Laura nodded slowly. "I'm kinda curious what might be up there. Hopefully some stuff I can use, the place is gonna be needing a lot of furniture and such when it's done. Is it safe to get up to the attic?"
   "Mpf, mpf, yeah," Ed said while puffing his pipe alight. "We put, mpf, one of our ladders up there."
   "Ah, okay, that's reassuring. Okay, show me, Daisy won't be here until around nine, so I have plenty of time."

She followed the two beavers into the dilapidated farmhouse, noticing how some of the flimsy and decaying walls had already been removed from the ground floor to make moving around a lot easier. The main staircase was still in place, and while it creaked and bowed, it was still safe to use for getting up to the second floor. From there, a corridor that had been quite narrow but now was much wider due to the walls on either side having been torn down ran from the front all the way to the back of the house. At the end of the corridor was a heap of rotting wood that had once been a folding staircase, replaced by a sturdy aluminum ladder leading up into a large rectangular hole in the ceiling.

Laura carefully followed the two beavers up the ladder as well, squinting in the dim light filling the attic from two small windows on either side. The attic was only just high enough to stand upright, with a path from the opening in the floor/ceiling towards a massive stone column all the way on the other side, which Laura guessed was the chimney of the fireplace. On either side, pretty much all of the floor space was occupied by old, even ancient furniture, wood crates, and sagging cardboard boxes stacked up to the beams of the roof.
   "Holy mother of cats," Laura murmured to herself as she gazed at everything once her eyes had adjusted to the dim light.
   "You want us to do anything with all this?" Will informed.
   "Yeesh, I dunno," Laura shrugged. "I had not expected anything like this. It all looks better than I would have expected, too, I see a lot of things I can most likely use very well once the place is all done. Uhm..." She scratched her left ear again, then perked it as an idea struck her. "I'll have to sort through all those boxes, whatever I can't use I'll sell, whatever's not salvageable I'll throw out, but it will take time to sort through it all. Could you perhaps bring one of those collapsible trash chutes tomorrow, or next time you come back anyway, and put it from the roof to that dumpster? Daisy's niece wanted to come over during the weekend to help me with the place as well, and if the weather's gonna stay like this, it'll be a good opportunity to go through all this stuff, and we can dump anything that needs to be thrown out through the chute."
   "Sure, consider it done," Will nodded. "We be here tomorrow, not Sunday though."
   "Great. And is there a way to get some decent lighting up here?"
   "We'll bring an extra generator, run up a wire," Ed promised.
   "Also great, thanks a lot," Laura smiled.

While the two beavers went back down to start their work, Laura remained in the attic for a while longer, looking around her, poking around, opening drawers, peeking into boxes, and eventually grabbing an old fruit crate made of flimsy wood. There was a variety of very old handyman tools in it. She brought that box down with her and took it out to her car so she could put all the old rusty gardening tools in it she had found in the old shed the previous day. As she was at that, she looked across her shoulder from her deeply leaned-over position at the sound of a honking horn behind her.

A cream-yellow 1956 International Harvester S110 pickup truck with a white grille had pulled up behind the Somali cat, its small windshield wipers furiously whipping sprays of rain off both outside edges of the windshield. The driver door window was wound down, giving passage to the left arm and head of the cinnamon-point Siamese cat Daisy, this time wearing an old cowboy hat instead of her flat straw boater, waving cheerfully at Laura.
   "Mornin', 'oney! Nice view!" she giggled with a wink.
Laura chuckled softly to herself and shook her head, getting up from her leaned-over position.
   "Good morning, Daisy. You're here quite early."
   "Yeah, dropped Shel off at school bit earlier, what with th' weather an' all. Ya ready to go, 'oney?"
   "Just a sec." Laura quickly put the last tools in the crate, then closed the trunk of her car and carried the crate over to Daisy's pickup. "Okay, ready now. Where do I put this?"
   "Jus' toss it in the back, 'oney," Daisy pointed. "There's a few bungee cords ya can secure it with."
   "Right."

Laura did just that, making sure she got the crate secured as tightly as she could. She also managed to put the old rusty wheelbarrow with the flat tire in there and secure it. Getting into the pickup on the passenger's side then, she shook her ears and pulled her hair out of her face and into a ponytail to squeeze the water from it, sending Daisy a sideways smile.
   "Thanks again for the help, Daisy. I don't suppose there'd be much we could do with the paths and such today though, right?"
   "Ya kiddin', 'oney?" Daisy chortled, swinging her old pickup around. "Weather's perfect for gettin' them tree stumps out. With the ground all soaked an' all, they let go easier, ya know."
   "If you say so," Laura chuckled, sitting back up and shrugging when she didn't find a seatbelt to fasten. "Do you reckon it will stay like this all through the weekend? Ed seemed to think so."
   "Right he is," Daisy nodded while she drove down the half-cleared path. "Forecast weren't too good I'm afraid. Shame for Shel, she was really lookin' forward to helpin' us."
   "Well, do I have the perfect work in that case," Laura chuckled. "Ed and Will showed me the attic of the house before you came; it's full of junk. Lots of good junk, mind you, lots of stuff I can and will use once the place is all done up, but there's also tons of boxes and such that need sorting through, to see what I can use, what I can keep, what I can sell, and what needs to be thrown out."
   "Oho!" Daisy laughed. "That's perfect alright, 'oney! I can assure ya she'll love that!" She winked cheerfully. "Though I bet she won' be much 'elp in sortin' out the stuff, she'll more be playin' with everythin' I'm sure."
   "Oh well, that will be fun too," Laura chuckled. She looked around her when Daisy drove back into the small town, rubbing her whiskers with a finger. "Man, I just can't get over all those fifties cars and all. It's almost surreal driving through a town like this, I feel like I'm in a movie set."
   "Better get used to it, 'oney," Daisy chortled. "The farm may keep ya busy, both gettin' it up to scratch again an' once ya start growin' stuff there, but any time ya gotta be in town, this is gonna be what ya be seein'."
   "I suppose," Laura said with another light chuckle. "And well, it certainly will be a great experience. I've often found, when I watch a movie set in the fifties, that I'm wishing I could visit some of the places, some of the establishments you see in those movies."
   "Such as?"
Laura shrugged merrily.
   "The usual. Small diner with waitresses on rollerskates, for instance. Or one of those ice cream parlors with the big old soda fountains." She laughed shortly. "Or even just pulling into a gas station and have a bunch of guys come out to pump the gas, clean the windshield, air the tires and check the oil all at once."
Daisy laughed softly and winked.
   "Haha, well, we 'ave sev'ral diners, one's an original boxcar diner even, though I ain't sure if the waitresses go on rollerskates there. An' when we get back from Fandago, I'll take ya over to Pam's, she runs our ice cream parlor, an' she's actually keepin' us on the map. Ha, funny when ya think 'bout it, we're all forgotten in time, but we're still famous for our soda jerk."
   "Is she so special, then?"
   "Jus' wait till ya see 'er, 'oney," Daisy winked. She pulled onto a huge lot. "Right, 'ere we are, Ag Co-op."

Once again, Laura looked around her. The lot was huge, alright; on one side was an enormous mound of something covered with a huge tarp and lots of old tires, at the back were rows of heavy vehicles like bulldozers, backhoes, combine harvesters and such, as well as large flatbed rigs to transport them with, on the other side were several enormous warehouses. Daisy had parked in front of a row of lower, smaller buildings, amidst a number of other 1950's cars, the majority of them being pickup trucks. She led Laura through the door of one of the buildings after they had gotten out of the truck, walking over to a large counter manned by a quite large timberwolf dressed in jean overalls and a bright orange hunter's cap.
   "Mornin', Daisy!" he greeted the Siamese brightly. "Mornin', uh..."
   "Mornin', Pete," Daisy smiled, putting a paw on Laura's shoulder. "This 'ere be Laura Forman. She be the new owner o' Fangle Farmstead."
   "Oh! Well, good morning to you too, miss Forman! Very pleased to meet you!" the timberwolf said even more brightly, shaking Laura's paw with enthusiasm. "I'm Pete Furlow, I'm the Ag agent here! It was such big news hearing someone was moving in to take over Fangle Farmstead, I can tell ya!"
   "So I heard," Laura said with a light chuckle. "Very nice to meet you too, Pete. You can call me just Laura." She gestured around with her free paw. "So, I also heard this place is the place to go for farmers when they need help?"
   "Absolutely! From seeds to trees, from rakes to combine harvesters, from well digging to complete excavations, anything a farmer could possibly need help with, we provide."
   "Well, that is awesome, because I'm definitely going to need a damn lot of help," Laura guffawed. "There's close to a half-century of mountain forest that needs to be cleared off the land before I can even start thinking of using the farm as an actual farm, and once that is all done, I will probably need drainage, sprinkler systems, machinery, the works." She laughed shortly. "Although for now, some help with the old tools I found will already do just fine. I take it there is some kind of membership involved?"
   "Indeed, indeed," Pete nodded, pulling up some papers from below the counter. "You have to be a member. There's a small fee which you can choose to pay monthly, quarterly or yearly, and it ensures you of aid in any form for your farm and your farming business. Look..." He lay the papers on the counter and pointed out several things, "...you sign here and here, these are the payment options, and all the rest of this describes the types of help you can apply for, as well as rules and guidelines for the borrowing and operating of equipment. In your case, I would suggest the monthly payment option since we're already deep in the second quarter, you can always change to quarterly or yearly later, we'll send reminders at the times quarterly payments are available. Plus you can opt to either or not receive our newsletter or seasonal catalogs and such."
   "Mm-hm, mm-hm," Laura nodded slowly while she looked through the papers. "I would probably like that, though I don't think the place even has a mailbox anymore, so I would need to figure out where to go to get a new one. I suppose you send the checks for the membership fee through mail too, right?"
   "Indeed we do, yes."
   "Right, then I definitely need to get a mailbox. Hey Daisy, do you know, would I need to put it all the way by the gate, or could I put it near the house?"
   "If ya ain't plannin' on keepin' any vicious guard dogs 'round, by the 'ouse will work, 'oney."
Laura guffawed shortly again.
   "Right. I'll do that then. Now for a really dumb question; what even is my address?"
   "Haha! Number one, Fangle Lane, 'oney."
This time, Laura blinked and slowly looked up.
   "You're kidding me, right?"
   "No 'oney, that's the 'onest truth," Daisy giggled, holding up a paw. "Mine is number one, Bluebell Lane. Nothin' on them gravel roads leadin' to our farms other than our farms, so it makes sense, don'tcha think?"
   "I suppose it does, in a way," Laura said, making a funny grimace. "Well, at least it'll be easy to remember, that's for sure." She filled out the paperwork and pushed it back over the counter. "Alright then, Pete, here's your papers, let me pay you the fee too, and then you're looking at your newest member who needs immediate help."
   "Of course, of course." Pete made out a check which he handed to Laura. "Just sign this as well, and we're all yours."
Laura did so, handing the check back and shaking paws with the timberwolf.
   "Thank you, now I feel like I belong here a lot more." She grinned. "Now, for that help..."
   "Of course, what can we help you with?"
   "Tools. I have a big box full of hand tools that I found in an old shed on the premises. They're all tools belonging to the original farm, so I want to keep them and use them, but they're all rusty and seized. I was told I could get them cleaned and refurbished here."
   "You most certainly can! Bring them in!"
   "On it."

With that, Daisy was already out of the building. And before Laura could even look around, the Siamese came back in again, pushing the wheelbarrow with the flat tire which in it held the wood crate full of tools. She took the box out and plunked it on the counter for the wolf to inspect the content. Pete rummaged through the rusty tools a bit, nodding every now and then before looking up at Laura.
   "We can handle that no problem. By next Wednesday, our workshop will have all of this like new again."
   "Fantastic. What will it cost me?"
   "Not a thing. Our workshop guys will be delighted to work on original Fangle Farmstead tools. Call it a welcome gift to our newest member."
   "Even more fantastic, I don't know how to thank you enough." Laura shook paws with the timberwolf again. "Definitely a pleasure meeting you and dealing with you, Pete. I can assure you that you will be seeing me coming back here a whole lot in the near future. For starters to get the vehicles that came with the place operational again."
   "I don't doubt it," Pete smiled. "You're welcome, Laura, and thank you as well. Welcome into our community."

Waving at one another, Laura and Daisy walked out of the building again and got back into Daisy's old pickup. As she started the engine, the Siamese cat chortled softly at Laura.
   "Good thing ya 'ave them papers to read, 'oney. We're facin' a drive of an hour anna half, mebbe two hours on the freeway now."
   "Is it that far to... whatever that town is called you said you'd take me to?"
   "Fandago. Yeah, a bit, but it's also, ya really don' wanna push this ol' crate over sixty on the freeway, 'specially in this kinda weather," Daisy chuckled, patting the dash of her truck. "She's a good work truck for short distances, but 'ighway drivin' ain't exactly 'er forte. Noise 'bove sixty b'comes pretty much unbearable, an' in this kinda weather she may go skatin'."
   "Oh, okay, I see," Laura nodded. "In that case, drive back to my place first, we'll take my car, that'll probably be quicker and more comfortable."
   "Okie dokie."

They drove back through town, not speaking much due to the noise of the rain rumbling on the truck's roof. Daisy pointed out several shops and enterprises Laura might want to visit at some point, and she stopped at the court house so Laura could request a new mailbox, after which they also made a stop at the aptly but not very originally named First National Bank so Laura could request a checkbook and such. Driving back to the farm then, the Siamese kitty stopped again at the point where the gravel road led out of town towards Fangle Farmstead and pointed at a very old pole with a very weathered sign on it, giggling softly. Squinting through the rain, Laura eventually let out a soft chuckle when she saw the sign indeed read Fangle Lane.

At the farm, Daisy parked her truck and caught the keys Laura tossed her, getting behind the wheel of the Somali's old brown Chevrolet instead while Laura got into the passenger's seat. Once again, the Siamese drove them through town, and right out of it to get onto the highway. It followed the line of the mountain's narrow outcrop in a long, smooth shallow curve, all the way to the end where it sharply curved around the point of the outcrop and crossed a narrow stream which Daisy pointed out was the stream coming from the mountain and running past both of their farms.

There was an exit to Fandago there as well, but Daisy ignored it and drove on. After about twenty minutes Laura saw why, as the Siamese pointed to the right of the highway. They could see a huge flat area filled with massive piles of gravel and rock and huge machines, running all the way up to where a very large chunk was cut out of the mountain's outcrop. It was all too clear that was the quarry Daisy had mentioned, and of course, the next exit showing signs to Fandago and Fandago Quarry took away any last possible doubt.

Daisy took the elevated exit, which led them over the highway to the other side and towards the city of Fandago. Staying at the outskirts, the Siamese eventually pulled onto the lot of a used car dealer tucked between the highway and a small industrial site. Pretty much all of the cars present were from before the turn of the century, and over half of the stock consisted of pickup trucks or flatbed trucks, or even more specialized trucks.
   "Right, 'ere we are, 'oney. If ya can't find a good farm truck 'ere, I'll eat me hat," Daisy chuckled as she parked and got out of the car.
   "I'll try and make sure you'll have a much tastier lunch than that," Laura chuckled.

Giggling softly, they started walking around and between the many cars on the lot. Even despite the rain steadily drenching them, they took their time, although Laura more looked at the aesthetic qualities of the pickup trucks, whereas Daisy pointed out the more useful qualities like certain tires, drivelines, bed sizes and load capacities. It still took almost half an hour before a salesman stepped up to them and asked them if he could be of assistance, and the man was happy enough to get back into the building after Daisy had told him they'd come for his assistance after they had picked out a truck.

Another twenty minutes later, Laura motioned over Daisy from by a 1974 GMC C1500 she was looking at. It was quite an attractive truck, red with a wide band of white along the middle, stacked quad headlights in a one-piece grille, chrome bumpers and chrome trim along the sides.
   "How about this one, Daisy? I quite like this one."
   "Mmm, le's 'ave a look-see." Daisy started stepping around the truck, looking at it from all sides, including the underside. "Not bad. Sierra, possibly Sierra Grande trim level, quite luxurious. C1500 though, I dunno. An' them tires ain't worth much either." She stepped back up to Laura after a full circle around the truck. "If ya like the model, 'oney, I would more suggest this one," she smiled, rapping her knuckles against the door of the truck standing right next to the red and white one.
Laura tilted her head and ran a paw over her muzzle while she looked at the truck Daisy indicated. It looked pretty much the same, except that it was a faded pond green color with white roof and pillars, it was sitting on deeply grooved tires, and it had a more rounded front design with a different grille with round dual headlights side by side in chrome bezels rather than a quite square nose with a single-piece grille with integrated stacked dual headlights.
   "What's the difference, except for the color and the front looking different?"
   "For one, she's sittin' on Mickey Thompson Mud-terrains," Daisy smiled, nudging the front left tire with a foot. "Tha's what ya want, 'oney, ya want yer truck to be able to pull through ev'ry kinda terrain. For 'nother, she's a K-series, see?" She tapped the fender badge with a finger. "K2500, that means she's an all wheel drive three-quart-ton truck. That red one's a C1500, meanin' she's a two wheel drive 'alf-ton truck. An' again, ya be wantin' the all wheel drive to make sure yer truck will pull through any kinda terrain. The extra load capacity's a bonus. Sure, 'kay, this one's two years older, but it's a much better truck for use on a farm, 'oney."
   "You convinced me," Laura chuckled. "I trust your experience. Alright, this one it is, then!"
   "Right, le's go an' get that fellow back out 'ere," Daisy chortled. She stepped out from between the trucks, halted, looked around, and grinned. "Ohey, extra bonus. The green one 'as a tow hitch."
   "You already convinced me, Daisy," Laura said with a soft laugh.
They walked to the small building at the back of the lot, informing the salesman they had made their choice. All three of them walked back to the truck Laura had picked with Daisy's advice.
   "So, 'ow much for this one?" the Siamese said, casually leaning an arm on the truck's bed.
   "I'll take three and a half thousand."
   "For this? Yer gettin' one."
   "Thirty-two fifty."
   "Eleven 'undred."

They went back and forth like that for a while. Laura kept silent, leaving the haggling to Daisy who clearly had a lot more experience with it. Sure enough, the Siamese eventually pinned down the price at eighteen hundred and seventy-five dollars, which was way below what Laura had expected to pay for a decent pickup truck. In all honesty, the Somali cat would already have been happy to pay the thirty-five hundred dollars - her Chevy Impala had cost her more than that, and that car was even three years older than the truck.

Returning once again to the small building, the salesman took out the paperwork and prepared it for Laura to sign.
   "Here, here and here," he pointed out. "This is your down-payment amount, you pay the rest when you pick up the car. Make sure to have insurance arranged starting that date, so we can call to confirm and get plates for the car."
   "When will that be?"
   "Next week Fri-..."
   "Wednesday. We 'ave to be in town to pick up other stuff then too," Daisy interrupted calmly.
   "Hm. Alright, we can do Wednesday. Will you pay by check?"
   "Yes," Laura confirmed. "Traveler's check, if that's alright. I've only been in town for three days now, haven't had time yet to stop by the bank and get a new checkbook and all that."
   "That'll be fine."

Laura nodded, signing the papers and writing a check which she exchanged for some of the papers, and a business card. With the promise they'd be seeing each other again the coming Wednesday, the two cats left the salesman and walked back to Laura's car.
   "Djeez, Daisy!" Laura giggled once they were inside the car again, squeezing the rain from her hair. "I can't believe how far down you haggled the price of that thing!"
   "Tha's jus' my style, 'oney," Daisy chuckled while she started the car. "Ya can thank me with a root beer float at Pam's when we get back to town."
   "You bet your pretty slender butt I will!" Laura giggled.

Daisy laughed cheerfully while she drove them back along the outskirts of Fandago and onto the highway. Under an hour later, as Daisy had kept the speed up a decent bit now that she had a better car than her old pickup to drive, they made their way back into the tiny town of Fangle Valley. Once again, the Siamese drove the two of them through pretty much the entirety of the town so she could point out several points of interests and shops and enterprises that she figured Laura would want to know about. Eventually, she parked on one of a couple of parking spaces at the side of a corner building either plastered or painted in a soft pink tint.

The corner of the building was sort of sliced off  to create space for a large pair of double doors, while both walls had large, high windows in it of which the tops were round. Many tables with chairs consisting of chrome tubes and pink and white striped seats and backs, as well as a large row of booths with similar pink and white striped cushions were visible through the large windows. Above the row of windows in both walls were large signs, and smaller, colorful neon signs were in the frontmost windows, all reading "Pam's Ice Cream Diner" in cheerful, bulbous letters that looked like balloons.
   "I take it this is where I'll be treating you to that root beer float, huh?" Laura chuckled, gazing at the building and its many period, cheery details as she got out of her car.
   "Ya betcher bippy, 'oney," Daisy chuckled, closing and locking the car before taking Laura by a paw and pulling her to the large front doors. "C'mon in an' meet Pam."
Laura followed Daisy with an amused shake of her head, again looking around her at the pink and white checkered floor, the cheery furnishings, the even cheerier decorations and the humongous bar with its row of pink and white barstools when they stepped into the building. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the woman behind the counter, however.
   "Holy mother of cats!"

The Somali cat couldn't stop herself from blurting out her surprise like that. It was rather understandable, however. The woman behind the counter was a feline with short, cream-white fur and light pink markings that ran from halfway down her lower arms over her paws and fingers, plus a light pink band between that and her elbows, a light pink circular marking over her muzzle, cheeks, chin and throat that ran into a larger light pink circular marking over her chest, light pink feet, a long, somewhat bushy tail that was light pink from just above halfway down and with a wide light pink band between that and the base of it, and she had short, light lavender hair with two longer and slightly darker purple bangs on both sides of her face, in which was a pair of friendly, warm deep pink eyes. She was dressed in a uniform that warranted almost no other description but adorable, consisting of a white shirt with short puff sleeves and pink ruffles, collar and cuffs, and a short white and pink striped skirt over which was a white apron with pink pockets and strings. Even more outstanding than all of that, however, was that the woman was seven feet and four inches tall.

At Laura's blurted outcry, the feline woman looked around and smiled at the two cats coming in, sending a merry wink in Laura's direction.
   "Aw thanks, but you may just call me Pam, you know. And good morning, Daisy." She leaned on the counter with a smile at Laura. "So what can I do for you, sweetie? Ya hungry, ya thirsty, or ya just passing through? It's a bit late in the morning, but I can still do you a wonderful breakfast if you want, the house blueberry pancakes are quite widely acclaimed if I may say so myself."
   "I'm sure she'll be samplin' them soon, Pam," Daisy chortled, pulling Laura over to the counter. "An' she may even b'come yer main berry supplier. May I introduce ya, Laura Forman, new owner o' Fangle Farmstead. Laura, this be Pam, our famous soda jerk."
   "Oh now! A pleasure to meet you, Laura!" Pam smiled, reaching over the counter to shake Laura's free paw. "Always so nice to see someone moving into our little town, we don't get that very often. And it's even nicer to know someone's found the deed to Lou's farm and will make it operational again. I take it that is what you're in town for, yes?"
   "Ah, yes indeed," Laura nodded while she returned the hearty pawshake. "As a matter of fact, since I've come into town a few days ago, we've been working quite hard on that. Edward and William Woodhouse are very busy gutting the farmhouse to make it into a habitable place again, and Daisy here has been helping me with clearing the paths, and today she brought me to the Ag Co-op for help with my tools and to some place so I could get a pickup truck."
   "Great, great!" Pam smiled widely. "It'll be wonderful having that place in business again, Fangle Farmstead was pretty much the first farm to settle here when our town got first established. It was such a shock when dear Lou passed away and it turned out the deed to the farm was missing. Do you have an idea already of what you will be growing once you have the place back in order?"
   "Yes, I was thinking fruits, mainly berries, I've always been a big fan of berries," Laura nodded, sitting down on a pink barstool. "It'll probably be a year or two before that actually happens, though. There's so much work to even just clear the grounds, and then when all of that work is finally done I will have to prep fields, plant berry bushes, wait for those to produce fruits, and, well, actually learn how to be a farmer."
   "I'm sure you'll learn that in a jiffy, sweetie," Pam smiled. "And if nothing else, you have our entire community to call upon for help, everyone will be totally happy to help you out any way they can."
   "I did notice that the people here are very friendly and very quick to offer help, indeed. I especially noticed that from the overwhelming way I was offered help by this crazy Siamese here next to me," Laura chuckled.
   "Oh phooey!" Daisy chuckled. "Yer lucky yer cute, 'oney!"
They all laughed cheerfully.
   "I suppose I have that going for me," Laura chortled, turning to Pam again. "So Daisy said I could treat her to a root beer float here?"
   "Best in the land, sweetie," Pam nodded. "You want one too?"
   "Yeah, you know what, I think I will," Laura nodded with a smile. "I can't remember ever having had one, actually."
   "That'll be two then, or one big one to share?"
   "Do us the big'un, 'oney, we'll share," Daisy chuckled.
   "Comin' up!"

The enormously tall white and pink cat ducked under the counter and produced a sundae glass that bore more resemblance to a pitcher. She twirled it between her fingers and plunked it down under one of a number of spouts of a very large, old-fashioned soda fountain, pulling the long lever to fill the pitcher about halfway with fizzing root beer. A reach into a freezer under the counter produced a large tub of vanilla ice cream, while the bump of an elbow against a tray full of cutlery and kitchen implements made an ice cream scoop sail across the white and pink cat's shoulder and into her free paw. She scooped several balls of the ice cream into the large glass before twirling the scoop around her finger and flicking it into a sink on the other side of the counter. Finally, after the pitcher's content stopped fizzing, she yanked the lever a couple of times again, splashing a few more dashes of root beer over the ice cream until the foam started bubbling over the top of the large glass.

With a flourish, Pam set the large glass on a plate with two spoons and set that on the counter in front of Laura and Daisy. Another bump of an elbow against a shelf with a number of small glass jars had two of the jars sail across her shoulders and land in each of her paws, which she held up cheerily.
   "Sprinkles?"
   "Oh now yer jus' showin' off," Daisy chuckled.
   "Wow, that was amazing, though! You have talent! And such skill!" Laura said with impressed enthusiasm.
   "Thank you, sweetie," Pam smiled, giving a small wink. "Now go on, eat up and enjoy!"
   "Yeah, no better firs' time tastin' a root beer float than tastin' the bes' one in the land, 'oney!" Daisy giggled, taking a large spoonful from the glass and sticking the spoon in Laura's mouth.

Giggling cheerfully, the two cats started eating the root beer float, chatting calmly with Pam and every now and then sharing friendly greetings with other people coming in. Most of the time, the greetings also came with introductions for Laura, as aside from the canine secretary from the mayor's office, all the people coming into the diner were ones the Somali cat hadn't met yet.

When they were done, Laura paid for the root beer float and also gave a generous tip, which earned her a bearhug from the very tall white and pink cat. As it was still raining steadily, the two cats hurried back to Laura's car and got in quickly.
   "Before we go back to the farm, Daisy; is there a supermarket around here? I got some basics the other day, but it's not very much as the only store I came across quickly was that small corner store by the town entrance. But I'm sure that even in a town as small as this, there's at least one decent-sized supermarket?" Laura asked.
   "Sure, Meg an' Ryan's."
   "Can you get me there first? I really need to do some proper grocery shopping, I can't and shouldn't depend on the Woodhouses bringing me breakfast goods every morning and you feeding me dinner every day."
   "We would, though," Daisy chuckled with a wink. "I know what'cha mean though, so le's go get yer fridge stocked."

She drove the two of them through the main street of the town and around the park in front of the courthouse. On the other side, behind the courthouse, were two buildings that had been made into one building, with each of the buildings' individual doors removed and replaced by a pair of large double doors in the middle, with a large sign reading Meg & Ryan's Super Market spanning almost the entire width of both buildings. Behind those buildings was a fairly large parking lot where Daisy parked the car before leading Laura back around to the front of the buildings and through the large double sliding doors.

On the inside, it was even more clear there had been two buildings which had simply been added together to form one large building; the dividing wall between the original buildings was still in place, although it had been provided with huge high archways. And Laura could tell it was not so much a supermarket as it was an old general store and an old grocery store that had been combined with one another. Daisy confirmed this, telling Laura that originally it had been Ryan's General Store and Meg's Groceries, but they had decided to combine their stores into one supermarket-like store for convenience, and to be able to offer lower prices.

There still was a sense of shopping in two separate stores, as all of the grocery-type wares were on one side of the dividing wall whereas the dry goods were on the other side, despite there being central cash registers in the middle. Laura also noticed that there was still a lot of old village influences, with, primarily, a lot of the fresh produce and such being provided by local farmers. All in all, it was a very pleasant shopping experience, and again, Laura got several introductions and hearty welcomes into the town and the community.

With two bags full of groceries and necessities, they once more hurried back to Laura's car. Still Daisy did not return to the farm, but she first drove Laura to a clothes store to help the Somali cat pick out a couple of pairs of overalls and some denim and flannel shirts - proper farmer's attire. She even bought Laura a flat-top straw boater, almost exactly the same as the hat she usually wore herself, except for the fabric band and bow being a different color.

Having taken care of everything they could think of that needed to be done while in town, the two cats eventually did drive back to the farm. Daisy drove them to her own farm, however, where she took her small orange tractor out of the barn and affixed a small, backhoe-like arm with a small bucket to the back of it. She also put the small chainsaw and several lengths of heavy chain in the trunk of Laura's car, telling Laura to go back to her own farm ahead of her while she drove the tractor over there. It gave Laura enough time to put away all her groceries and even to change into one of the pairs of overalls by the time Daisy reached her farm.

When the Siamese arrived, it was finally time to get to work. Laura was still a bit foggy on exactly how they were going to get the stumps of the trees they had cut down the previous day out of the paths, but once Daisy showed her it turned out to be relatively simple. The Siamese cat used the arm on the back of her tractor to dig down on either side of a stump, then used the bucket to pull the stump upwards after which she affixed some of the chains to it and the bucket and pulled it up further, at which point Laura stood by with the chainsaw to cut through the thicker roots. After dropping the stump at the side of the path, Daisy used the wider bucket on the front of her tractor to smoothen the path a bit and fill in the hole left by the stump.

It was pretty hard work, and with the rain not letting off throughout the day it was pretty muddy work as well. A couple of hours in, both cats were covered almost up to their chests in gooey, gray-ish red mud, with streaks of it covering their faces and heads as well from where they had mopped the sweat off their brows. It did not diminish the cheerfulness and energy with which they attacked the work one single bit, however. If anything, it made them even cheerier - almost like a pair of kittens playing in the mud.

All in all, it made the work, as well as the time, go by without either of them noticing it. The dark rainclouds blanketing the sky took away a good deal of awareness on the passing of the time, with the light more or less staying the same throughout. By the time the two felines reached the old well by the farmhouse, it turned out to already be nearing six o'clock.
   "Well! Time sure flies, don' it?" Daisy commented as she took her pocket watch from her front pocket and flicked it open to check it. "I better get back 'ome, Shel mus' be wonderin' what's keepin' me."
   "Is it that time already?" Laura blinked, checking her own watch. "Wow, you're right, I hadn't the faintest we've been going for so long already."
   "Well, least we got a good bit o' work done, 'oney," Daisy winked. "Ya got half a path all clear an' smooth now, so no more zig-zaggin' 'round trees an' stumps an' havin' yer teeth rattle outta yer mouth when ya pull up to yer 'ouse."
   "That's definitely true, and you have no idea how much I appreciate it, Daisy," Laura chuckled. "I wouldn't have made a fraction of this amount of progression if I had been left to my own devices."
   "Ya can thank me with a backrub when we're showerin', 'oney," Daisy grinned, rolling her shoulders a bit. "Sittin' half-turned on that tractor all the time to look at what I'm doin' b'hind me sure pulls at yer muscles, I can tell ya."
   "Haha, I'll do my best, dear," Laura laughed shortly.

They gathered up the tools and the chains to put them in the trunk of Laura's car, and Laura even grabbed a trash bag to put on the driver's seat so she wouldn't smear the mud from her clothes all over the seat as she followed Daisy to Bluebell Farm. As they arrived there, they could see the black and white kitten Shelly behind one of the living room windows with her nose smooshed against the glass. The moment they stepped in through the front door, Shelly zoomed out of the living room and up to the two muddy cats with a cheery squeal.
   "Aunt Daisyyy! Where've you been! It's dinnertime already!"
Daisy just in time managed to stop the kitten from hugging either of them.
   "Whoa whoa, easy kiddo! No huggin' till we's all clean again, 'kay? I been helpin' Laura, 'oney, we been to Fandago for a truck an' to the Ag Co-op an' into town for shoppin' an' everythin', an' we did a whole buncha work at 'er farm."
   "Oh yeah! You said so yesterday!" Shelly nodded. "What's for dinner though? I'm hungry!"
   "Let us get cleaned up firs', silly!" Daisy chuckled. "I'll throw somethin' t'gether when we's done, 'kay? Go an' do yer homework in the meantime, we shouldn't be too long I don' think."
   "Bleh! Okaaaaaay, fiiiiine!" Shelly complained with a giggle, poking out her tongue.
Laura giggled softly behind a paw.
   "If you finish all your homework, I'll have something very fun for you to do at my house tomorrow, dear, and I will treat you and your aunt to a root beer float at Pam's for lunch, too."
   "Eeeeeeee!" Shelly squealed, hopping up and down. "Okay Laura! Yay! You're totally the best!"
   "I know, you told me so yesterday a couple of times already," Laura chuckled.
   "An' she's also the muddiest, so it's shower time now," Daisy chortled, smacking Shelly's rump with a paw. "Go do yer homework, we'll be down in a bit."
   "Okay, okay!" Shelly giggled, flicking her tail and running back into the living room.
Chuckling softly, Daisy and Laura went upstairs to the bathroom, peeling off their muddy clothes.
   "Jus' drop yer duds in the 'amper, 'oney, I'll wash'em tomorrow."
   "Thanks," Laura smiled while she put her keys and her purse on the shelf over the sink before peeling off her overalls. "What should I put on when I drive back to my place though?"
   "Nothin'?" Daisy shrugged with a giggle, turning on the shower and mixing the hot and cold water. "Ya can easily do that, ya know, ain't no one gonna be on that path 'tween yer place an' mine to be seein' ya. 'Eck, Shel an' me often go for hikes on the mountain in the buff in summer, ain't no one seein' us there either. Well, 'cept mebbe Cynthia," she added with a chuckle.
   "I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting a Cynthia yet," Laura chuckled.
   "Oh ya will soon 'nough," Daisy winked while she checked the temperature of the water. "She's a fishin' cat, ya know, lives in Pine Corner, but she's always over on this side o' the mountain too, takin' care o' the fish populations in the Fangle River an' Fangle Reservoir as well as in that stream comin' from the mountain an' runnin' past our farms an' the few small mountain lakes it feeds."
   "Is that why there is so much fish in that stream?" Laura asked, stepping under the shower. "I noticed it seemed to be quite teeming with life when I looked at it the other day."
   "Oh yeah," Daisy nodded as she stepped under the shower as well. "She 'as an aquarium store in Pine Corner, breeds pretty much alla the fish 'erself, but she's also big in environmentalism an' such, an' she takes real good care o' the waterways 'round 'ere."
   "I see," Laura chuckled, closing her eyes and leaning back her head to let the water flow over her hair and face, rinsing away the majority of the mud as it flowed down the rest of her body. "And so she has seen you and Shelly taking nature walks in the nude before then."
   "Yup, plen'y o' times," Daisy nodded, untangling her braid and grinning a bit. "I daresay we's one o' the main reasons she loves comin' over to this side o' the mountain so much. We spent a whole buncha reeeal good times t'gether already."
   "I take it that things haven't stopped at just seeing you naked, then," Laura chuckled while she shook the water off her ears.
   "Nah, we also did a lotta fishin' an' flower pickin' an' swimmin' an'... stuff," Daisy giggled.
   "Right, right, 'and stuff', I see," Laura said with a funny smirk.
   "Yeah, we love the stuff," Daisy winked.
   "I must keep an eye out for this Cynthia, then. Sounds like she could tell me some quite interesting stories," Laura grinned.
   "You betcher bippy, 'oney," Daisy winked again. "Shouldn't be too 'ard to miss 'er, neither; she's 'bout as tall as ya, few inches shorter mebbe, thick silver fur with tons o' spots, an' bein' a nudist too, she usually does 'er field trips in the buff as well."
   "I'll definitely be keeping an eye out, then," Laura chuckled. "Now, about that backrub I owe you..."

She turned a bit and also turned Daisy a bit, laying her paws on the Siamese's shoulders and curling her fingers over them. Daisy chuckled and leaned over a bit, dipping her ears against the spray from the shower and curling her tail around Laura's waist while playfully pressing her slender butt against the Somali's stomach. Despite not having very much experience with giving massages, Laura could easily feel the strong muscles under Daisy's fine, short fur and smooth skin, running her fingers back and forth along them in soft rubbing motions.
   "Golly, Daisy," she said after a while of softly rubbing the Siamese's back. "You don't really look it, but you have some darn strong muscles in you."
   "Workin' on a farm kinda does that to ya, 'oney," Daisy chuckled, rolling her shoulders again. "Once ya 'ave yer place all up an' runnin', ya will find yer muscles gettin' all 'ard an' strong too." She turned to face Laura and grinned softly, bringing up her paws and cupping them around the Somali's breasts to give a light, playful squeeze. "Gee wiz, an' whaddaya know, Shelly was right, ya are very soft indeed."
Laura blinked for a flash of a moment, looking down at the slender fingers curled around the curvature of her breasts, then giving her head an amused shake and poking out her tongue at Daisy while she placed her own paws right over the Siamese's petite breasts in return.
   "Gee wiz, whaddaya know, Shelly was right, mine are bigger than yours."

They both giggled, looking down at the other's paws being on their breasts, then looking up at each other again. The next moment, Daisy leaned up and locked lips with Laura. Again, the Somali cat was momentarily surprised, but a moment later she closed her eyes and leaned down her head a bit and answered the kiss, slightly parting her lips when she felt Daisy's tongue running against hem.

For several long, blissful moments they just stood there, the warm water of the shower running down along their bodies and rinsing away the last traces of all the mud, paws on each other's breasts, eyes closed and lips locked together while their tongues slowly explored and tasted one another. Eventually breaking free, they opened their eyes again and looked at each other with a soft purr. Daisy slid one of her paws up along Laura's breasts and to her face, brushing a dripping lock of hair from the Somali's face with a smile.
   "We should prob'ly get back downstairs an' start on dinner, mm?"
   "Yeah... yeah, I reckon that would probably be a good idea," Laura nodded with a purr.

Daisy nodded and pressed a soft smooch on the side of Laura's muzzle while she turned off the water. Grabbing two towels, they dried off as best as they could and helped each other brush their fur and hair a bit before walking back downstairs. As they stepped into the living room, Shelly hopped up from the couch and ran up to them to hug them both in turns.
   "You took long! I got all my homework finished already!"
   "Good gal," Daisy chuckled, ruffling Shelly's short hair with a paw. "Now go on upstairs an' wash up, I'll make us somethin' for dinner. Ya can leave yer clothes in the 'amper."
   "Yay! Okies! Nakie time, wheee!" Shelly giggled.
She hugged Daisy and Laura again before darting out of the living room and up the stairs. Laura chuckled softly while she followed Daisy to the kitchen.
   "I've never seen a kit be so enthusiastic about washing up for dinner. Don't kits usually hate bathing?"
   "Yeah well, she knows she can leave 'er clothes off afterwards, an' for a gal 'er age that's still an adventure, 'cause they think it's naughty, even though it ain't," Daisy chuckled, leaning into the refrigerator to grab a stick of butter and some packets of sliced cheese and luncheon meats, then taking a loaf of bread from a breadbox. "Wanna 'elp me make some sammiches while I 'eat up some soup, 'oney?"
   "Sure," Laura nodded with a smile. "And yeah, that makes sense. I know when I was a kit, it always seemed mighty exciting to me when we went to a swimming pool and I had to take all my clothes off to change into a bathing suit."
Daisy nodded while she grabbed a can of richly filled tomato soup from the pantry.
   "Ya ever went skinny dippin', though?"
   "Well, not when I was a kit, that's for sure," Laura laughed softly, finding a wood cutting board and a breadknife so she could start cutting slices off the loaf of bread. "I did later, sometimes, though. The town I lived in was near the foothills of a mountain as well, and there was a hot spring in the hills that was a quite popular place for skinny dipping." She laughed shortly again. "It was not allowed initially, but people were caught skinny dipping there so often the town eventually put up a sign by the spring saying that after eight o'clock in the evening, it was a clothing-optional place, just to be rid of the hassle."
   "Haha!" Daisy chuckled while she opened the can of soup and poured it into a pan. "I s'pose that would be a good solution, yeah." She winked as she reached past Laura to grab a ladle from a pot full of kitchen implements. "Well, I can tell ya, 'oney, that stream that runs past our farms? It springs up quite near the crater o' the ol' volcano an' collects into a small mountain lake, an' from there it runs into a second, even smaller lake from where it runs down the side o' the mountain an' past our farms. The stream ain't that deep or wide, but both them li'l lakes are mighty suitable for swimmin' in, an' since they's so private up there in the mountain forest, they's even more suitable for skinny dippin'. We done it a bunch o' times durin' summer vacation, Shel an' me. Matter o' fact, that's 'ow we firs' met Cynthia."
   "I believe that," Laura chuckled, buttering the slices of bread and covering them with slices of cheese, salami, ham and/or turkey breast. "You gotta show me those lakes sometime, I'd be very interested to see, uhm... where the main water source for my farm originates from, yeah," she finished with a laugh and a wink.
   "O'course ya are," Daisy chuckled as she lit the stove and started stirring the soup. "I'll be sure to show ya sometime soon, it's mighty important for a farmer to know where the water for their farm comes from. Gotta know if it's clean an' all that." She pointed at a row of plants in the windowsill. "Can ya 'and me that parsley plant, 'oney? Left one."

Laura nodded and took the indicated plant off the windowsill to hand it to Daisy, looking at the Siamese cutting off several of the stalks and leaves and taking a large knife to chop them up finely, after which she added them to the soup and stirred that again. She also added some yellowish white powder and red powder from a couple of small jars and stirred it through the soup, making sure to keep it from bubbling. While she was at that, Shelly came into the kitchen, now also nude, and happily hugged both Daisy and Laura around the waist from behind.
   "Yay, soup! I like soup!"
   "Good, then go an' set the table, 'oney," Daisy chuckled. "Dinner's almos' done."
   "Okies!"

The kitten happily bustled out of the kitchen and into the dining room, where she was heard fussing around with cutlery and chinaware. Daisy meanwhile finished with the soup and took a pair of crocheted pan holders so she could pour the soup into a tureen while Laura put the cheese and meats and butter back into the fridge and put the sandwiches on a large platter.

Bringing the food into the dining room and setting it on the table, they sat together and had a calm, relaxed dinner, chatting about various things. Daisy taught Laura a few basics on how to read the weather, and what were some of the best and most economical ways to install things like drainage and sprinklers on her farm. Before too long, the food was gone, and after they had washed and dried the dishes, they moved to the living room to continue their calm sitting together and chatting.

All the while, Shelly was happily cuddling up against Laura from the other side, with her arms wrapped tightly around the Somali cat and her head nuzzled against Laura's midriff. The agouti feline lightly stroked the kitten's hair and ears with one paw without even really noticing she was doing it while she was talking with Daisy, although the constant chirpy purr coming from Shelly was a perpetual reminder of how happy the young cat was feeling.
   "Hey, Laura?" she purred at a lull in the conversation, rolling her head to look at the Somali's face.
   "Mm? Yes, what is it, dear?" Laura smiled, looking down and only then noticing how she had been petting the kitten's hair and ears the entire time.
   "Can we still make pictures, Laura?" Shelly asked with a hopeful smile.
Laura chortled softly and lay a fingertip on the kitten's nose.
   "We'll do that tomorrow, okay? That way we'll have much more time because we'll be spending the whole day together, and you won't have such an early bedtime. Or at least, I suppose so?" she added with a sideways glance at Daisy.
   "Nope, yer right alright," Daisy chuckled. "Weekend bedtime is an hour later, 'cept for Sunday 'cause it's back to school on Monday."
   "Makes sense," Laura nodded, looking back to Shelly. "Alright, so yes, we'll do the pictures tomorrow then." She chuckles. "We also won't need such an extensive shower tomorrow since the work I have planned is waaay less muddy than the work your aunt Daisy and I did today. It'll probably be a lot more dusty, though."
   "Ooooo! Ooo! What're we gonna do, Laura?" Shelly asked enthusiastically, looking up with twinkling eyes.
Laura looked aside at Daisy again, chuckling softly.
   "Should I tell her?"
   "Sure!" Daisy laughed, giving Laura a nudge with her shoulder. "I mean, 'eck, I'm curious as anything too, 'oney!"
   "Hee! Well, alright then," Laura giggled. She turned back to Shelly and winked. "Well dear, the thing is this, see. This morning, the misters Woodhouse informed me, and then showed me, that the original attic of the farmhouse is still intact and it's full of stuff. I mean, lots and lots of stuff! Furniture and such, and tons and tons of crates and boxes full of stuff as well. So I asked them to bring one of those fold-up trash chutes tomorrow, so that we can sit in the attic and sort through all of that stuff to find out what it all is, what I will save to use myself, what I will save to sell lateron, and what I can throw away. That is what we will be doing tomorrow, and most likely Sunday as well."
   "Eeeee!" Shelly sat up and started bouncing on the couch while clapping her paws. "That sounds so awesommme, Laura! I love going through old stuff in the attic and seeing what I find! There's always so much fun stuff to find!"
   "Good, then I won't have to worry you will be bored out of your mind by doing clean-up work the whole day tomorrow," Laura chortled, playfully ruffling Shelly's hair and ears with her paw.
   "Nope! It'll be so much fun!" Shelly giggled while batting a paw at Laura's paw.
Daisy curled her lips into a grin as she rose up from the couch.
   "In that case, we better get ya into bed, 'oney, so ya will be all rested for tomorrow. An' 'cause it's yer bedtime, too."
   "Hee! I suppooooose!" Shelly giggled.
   "Yes, your aunt is right, sweetie," Laura chortled. "It's actually my bedtime as well, because both misters Woodhouse will be at my house again at seven tomorrow morning, and I should be all ready by then."
   "You will come tuck me in first though, yes?" Shelly giggled, setting a pair of cutely begging eyes upon Laura.
   "How could I say no to that look?" the Somali cat giggled.

She got up from the couch as well, the three of them making their way up the stairs and to Shelly's bedroom to put the kitten into bed and smooch her goodnight. And getting a great big slopper of a smooch in return. They stopped by the bathroom on the way back downstairs to collect all of Laura's personal belongings that she had kept in the pockets of her overalls, then halting by the front door where the two cats shared another soft, tender kiss.
   "I'll be seeing the two of you tomorrow then, Daisy."
   "Sure ya will. Ninish sound 'kay?"
   "Sounds great to me. Just go in and go up to the attic if I'm not down to meet you." Laura gave Daisy a close hug. "Goodnight darling."
   "G'night 'oney, sleep tight an' sweet dreams an' all that."

A last close embrace, then Laura stepped outside and walked over to her car, already having completely forgotten she was still stark naked despite the rain still falling steadily. It was such a second nature to her she didn't even notice her being nude most of the times. Driving calmly along the dark dirt road between the two farms, the agouti cat reflected on the day, the work they had done, and the work they would be doing the next day. As she reached her trailer, she parked and quickly got into the trailer, drying the rain off her fur with a towel before settling down in the bed with a smile.

Tomorrow was certainly going to be a very nice and fun day.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Meanwhile, in Minnaluna... - Fangle Farmstead - part 03", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/plain", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "1", "rating_name": "Mature", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "80" }